Edmonds v. State

• Decision Date: 18 December 2002
• Docket Number: No. 20,20
• Citation: 812 A.2d 1034,372 Md. 314
• Parties: Jerome Maurice EDMONDS v. STATE of Maryland.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

812 A.2d 1034

372 Md. 314

Jerome Maurice EDMONDS v. STATE of Maryland.

No. 20, Sept. Term, 2002.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

December 18, 2002.

Nancy S. Forster, Deputy Public Defender (Stephen E. Harris, Public Defender, on brief), Baltimore, for petitioner.

Zoe Gillen White, Assistant Attorney General (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Attorney General of Maryland, on brief), Baltimore, for respondent.

Argued before BELL, C.J., ELDRIDGE, RAKER, WILNER, CATHELL, HARRELL and BATTAGLIA, JJ. RAKER, Judge.

This case involves the exercise of peremptory challenges under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). The principle question raised in the certiorari petition is whether the trial court erred in creating a remedy after finding a Batson violation. Unfortunately, because the trial court failed to make the necessary findings as to purposeful discrimination required by Batson, we are unable to answer the question. We shall therefore remand the case to the trial court to enable the court to evaluate the credibility of the prosecutor's race-neutral explanations and to determine whether petitioner carried his burden of proving purposeful discrimination.

As a predicate to petitioner's conclusion that the prosecutor exercised peremptory challenges in violation of the strictures of Batson, he maintains that a uniform policy of exercising a peremptory challenge to all jurors with relatives who have been convicted of a crime, without regard to the particular circumstances of the case, is inherently discriminatory and violates the rubrics of Batson. We do not agree.

I.

Jerome Maurice Edmonds, petitioner, was indicted by the Grand Jury for Baltimore County for first-degree murder, use of a handgun in the commission of a felony, use of a handgun in a crime of violence, attempted robbery, and conspiracy to commit robbery in the shooting death of a Caucasian youth. The State served Edmonds with a notice of intent to seek the death penalty.¹

The trial commenced on February 6, 2001, in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County. Petitioner is African American. The trial court conducted voir dire of ninety-nine potential jurors² and included in the voir dire the following question: "Is there any member of the jury panel or any member of your immediate family who has been the victim of a crime or, conversely, have you or any member of your immediate family been convicted of a crime?"

At the conclusion of the voir dire, forty-two prospective jurors remained, six of whom were African American Five of the six African-American venirepersons responded to voir dire questions. Juror number 704 indicated that her brother had been murdered by a drug dealer in New York City and that she believed the killer had received leniency because the defendant's brother was a police officer. Ms. Ashe, juror number 614, reported that, twenty years ago, her sister had used an alias, and had been convicted of a drug violation. Ms. Ashe stated that she could be impartial. Juror number 56 discussed pressing work obligations. Ms. Smith, juror number 719, believed her nephew had been convicted of attempted murder but thought that he had been treated fairly and that she could be impartial as a juror. Ms. Nelson, juror number 66, indicated that she thought she recognized the defendant as someone she knew but then realized she had been mistaken.

Defense counsel objected to the State's use of peremptory challenges against five potential African-American jurors on the grounds that the strikes were racially discriminatory.³ When the prosecutor exercised his first two peremptory challenges against African-American women, juror number 56 and Nelson, the defense raised a Batson challenge. The prosecutor explained that he had earlier attempted to strike juror number 56 for cause because of her work obligations and that he challenged Nelson because she had misidentified the defendant.⁴

The next African American, Ashe, was acceptable to both parties and was seated. The parties agreed to two more jurors, and, with twelve jurors seated, the court asked whether the jury was acceptable. The State excused a Caucasian woman, and selection continued. When next asked whether the jury was acceptable, defense counsel exercised additional strikes.⁵ The prosecutor then raised a Batson challenge on the grounds that defense counsel had stricken three Caucasian prospective jurors. The court overruled the State's Batson challenge, and defense counsel pointed out that the prosecutor was not consistently striking jurors with prior criminal records or relatives with criminal records because the State seated Ashe. In response, the prosecutor indicated that he would challenge Ashe later because she wore a religious symbol on her ear and her sister had a criminal conviction. The prosecutor pointed out that previously he struck two Caucasian jurors whose relatives had criminal records.⁶ The prosecutor reiterated that uniformly he would strike persons whose relatives had criminal records but that he was not doing so because of race.⁷ He assured the court that the jury panel would include African Americans.

The jury was acceptable to the State but not to the defense; defense counsel exercised additional strikes. The parties reviewed more jurors and exercised additional peremptory strikes; the State then struck juror number 704, Ashe and Smith. The jury was acceptable to the State, but defense counsel objected because it included only one African American. The defense argued to the trial court that the State's use of five strikes against African-American jurors, in a case with a black defendant and white victim, constituted a premeditated effort to remove African Americans from the jury. Significantly, the judge, in response, remarked that he did not "buy the State's position" that it was going to strike jurors with relatives convicted of crimes but who stated they could be impartial.

The trial court asked the prosecutor his reasons for striking five African American venirepersons. The following colloquy took place:

"THE COURT: Nelson.

"PROSECUTOR: Yes. That was the mis-identification. She thought she knew the Defendant, good, bad or indifferent.

"THE COURT: Yes. Bad, indifferent or silly, that's your reason.

"PROSECUTOR: No, my reason is she could have been any race, creed or color, religion, I'm going to strike with a mis-identification. She thought she knew him.

"THE COURT: First of all, so the record is clear, she did not misidentify anybody. She came up here on her own and said that initially she thought that maybe she knew Mr. Edmonds but when she got up here she realized that she didn't know him, and she was perfectly candid about it. So you may not characterize that as a mis-identification because it was not a misidentification."

* * *

"THE COURT: .... What about Ashe, number 614?

"PROSECUTOR: Prior criminal record.

"THE COURT: She didn't have. Her family did.

"PROSECUTOR: Family, criminal record.

"DEFENSE COUNSEL: Twenty years ago, her sister.

"PROSECUTOR: Her sister was convicted, had a drug charge.

"THE COURT: She thought she had been treated fairly. What about Smith?

"PROSECUTOR: Smith.

"DEFENSE COUNSEL: What number is that?

"PROSECUTOR: For attempted murder.

"THE COURT: What's that got to do with the price of eggs?

"PROSECUTOR: Are you asking the reason why we struck her?

"THE COURT: You say she could not sit because her nephew is in jail?

"PROSECUTOR: ... When asked her to state her—I wrote a question mark next to her—she said she could but her demeanor told me otherwise. I think we have a right to strike her. If the question is what she says, we don't know whether she is, whether she is telling the truth. We don't know if there is a bias. Demeanor told me she wasn't even sure if she could be unbiased.

"THE COURT: I didn't notice that. Her demeanor didn't tell me that."

Defense counsel then asked the court to seat Smith, but the court did not rule on that proposal. Shortly thereafter, defense counsel requested the court to reseat Nelson:

"DEFENSE COUNSEL: Your Honor, may I say that I think Juror Number 66, Ms. Nelson, who was friends with the County Police, and was the one that [the prosecutor] has mischaracterized as misidentifying would perhaps be the most appropriate to reseat. It was inconceivable to me that she was strickeny(4)27

"PROSECUTOR: .... We have given race neutral reasons for striking that person.

"THE COURT: But I have to agree with you, you know, that part of the deal the Judge has to buy, and the race neutral—

"PROSECUTOR: I understand that but more important—

"THE COURT: You mischaracterize why you did it, though, why you struck her. She did not mis-identify anybody, and that was the reason you gave. I'm having trouble with it because it's—it didn't happen."

The court reseated Nelson as a juror.⁸

Before the jury was sworn, defense counsel objected to the jury as impaneled:

"I asked for the specific replacement of Ms. Nelson believing that it was the most untenable of all the State's objections but not giving any credence, with no personal rancor toward [the prosecutor], not accepting the neutral, the racial neutrality offered by the State .... I believe that the State has inappropriately created a pattern of striking African Americans and that their allegations of neutrality are insufficient as a matter of law."

The court ruled as follows:

"Okay. And so they are who they are. With regard to the five of the eight that—I guess nine that the State took, I just refuse to accept the reason that the State gave for Nelson. I just specifically reject that reason as being race neutral on its face. That's why when the defense asked that I put her back on there, I did."

The jury was composed of nine Caucasians, two African Americans, and one South Asian American.

The jury convicted Edmonds of felony murder, attempted armed robbery, and use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence. He was found not...