Clark v. State, 2 Div. 693
Decision Date | 14 June 1991 |
Docket Number | 2 Div. 693 |
Citation | 585 So.2d 249 |
Parties | Jesse Ellis CLARK v. STATE. |
Court | Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals |
This court's opinion of February 1, 1991, is withdrawn, and the following is substituted therefor.
The appellant was convicted of the capital offense of murder in the first degree during a burglary and, following a sentencing hearing, the jury recommended that he be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, by a vote of 12 to 0. Thereafter, the trial court adopted the jury's recommendation and sentenced the appellant to life imprisonment without parole.
The appellant, who is white, argues that the prosecutor used his peremptory challenges in a discriminatory manner, in violation of the appellant's rights to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and his rights to a jury venire comprised of a fair cross-section of the community under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The record indicates that the State used 20 of its 23 strikes to remove black potential jurors. The appellant objected at trial, claiming that the strikes were racially motivated and that they were prejudicial and discriminatory to him. He then made a motion for the State to come forward with race-neutral reasons for the strikes. The trial court overruled the appellant's objection and denied his request for such a showing.
The United States Supreme Court has held that a white defendant has standing to raise a challenge to the exclusion of blacks from his jury under the Sixth Amendment, but that such a claim fails because the Sixth Amendment's guarantee to an impartial jury does not mean a representative jury. Holland v. Illinois, 493 U.S. 474, 110 S.Ct. 803, 107 L.Ed.2d 905 (1990). Thus, the fair cross-section requirement does not prohibit peremptory challenges, as such challenges are necessary to remove extremes of partiality from both sides, ensuring an impartial jury. Id.
However, the appellant was entitled to the granting of his request that the prosecutor come forward with race-neutral reasons for his strikes, pursuant to his rights to equal protection. In Powers v. Ohio, 499 U.S. 400, 111 S.Ct. 1364, 113 L.Ed.2d 411 (1991), the United States Supreme Court held:
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Clark v. State
...Elizabeth Culberson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State. ON RETURN TO REMAND McMILLAN, Judge. I This cause was remanded to the trial court, 585 So.2d 249, in order for the prosecutor to come forward with race-neutral explanations for his peremptory strikes of black prospective jurors. Batson v......
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...test in civil case); Moreno v. G & M Oil Co., 88 F.Supp.2d 1116, 1118 (C.D.Cal.2000) (applying test in civil case); Clark v. State, 585 So.2d 249, 250 (Ala.Crim.App.1991) (applying test in criminal case); People v. Morris, 107 Cal.App.4th 402, 131 Cal.Rptr.2d 872, 879 (2003) (applying test ......