Ex parte Thomas
Decision Date | 02 September 1994 |
Citation | 659 So.2d 3 |
Parties | Ex parte Addie Lee THOMAS. (Re Addie Lee Thomas v. State). 1921804. |
Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Richard M. Kemmer, Jr. of Brown & Kemmer, Phenix City, for petitioner.
James H. Evans, Atty. Gen., and Stephen N. Dodd, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
On Application for Rehearing
The opinion released on May 20, 1994, is withdrawn and the following is substituted as the opinion of the Court.
Addie Lee Thomas was convicted of the murder of her husband and was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed, by an unpublished memorandum (see Thomas v. State, 636 So.2d 492 (Ala.Crim.App.1993)); we granted her petition for a writ of certiorari to determine whether a statement in that court's memorandum conflicts with Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), and cases following Batson. The question is whether we should reaffirm the principle that "[w]hen the evidence shows only that blacks were struck and that a greater percentage of blacks sat on the jury than sat on the lawfully established venire, an inference of discrimination has not been created." Harrell v. State, 571 So.2d 1270, 1271 (Ala.1990), cert. denied, 499 U.S. 984, 111 S.Ct. 1641, 113 L.Ed.2d 736 (1990). Or, as Thomas phrases the issue, may a defendant make a prima facie case of discrimination by showing that the prosecutor used a large number of his peremptory challenges to engage in a pattern of striking blacks from the venire, even though a higher percentage of blacks ultimately sat on the jury than on the venire?
The only facts in the record that are relevant to this case appear in the following discussion between the defense attorney, the prosecutor, and the judge:
The memorandum of the Court of Criminal Appeals states, in pertinent part:
In Harrell v. State, 555 So.2d 263 (Ala.1989) ("Harrell I "), the Court held that after the prosecutor uses peremptory challenges to remove black veniremembers, the court should hold a Batson inquiry to afford the defendant the opportunity to present a prima facie case of racial discrimination. 555 So.2d at 267-68.
The circuit court in this case did not deprive the defendant Thomas of an opportunity to put on a prima facie case, but simply held that Thomas had failed to make a prima facie showing of discriminatory strikes and, thus, the court refused to order the prosecutor to give reasons for his strikes.
In Harrell I, this Court granted the State's petition for certiorari review, but affirmed the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals, remanding the case for the circuit court to hold a Batson hearing. The Court recognized in Harrell I the problems circuit judges were facing in struggling with whether a "pattern of strikes" existed in a particular case:
" "
555 So.2d at 266 (quoting Note, Batson v. Kentucky and the Prosecutorial Peremptory Challenge: Arbitrary and Capricious Equal Protection, 74 Va.L.Rev. 811, 821 (1988)). However, Harrell I cited Ex parte Branch, 526 So.2d 609 (Ala.1987), as "set[ting] out certain specific kinds of conduct by a prosecutor that would raise the inference of discrimination under Batson," including " 'A pattern of strikes against black jurors on the particular venire....' " 1 Harrell I, 555 So.2d at 266, quoting Branch, 526 So.2d at 622.
On remand, the circuit court held a hearing and determined that Harrell had made a prima facie case of purposeful discrimination on the part of the prosecutor in selecting the jury. The venire had contained 10 black members; the prosecution struck 5 of them. The circuit court determined that the prosecutor had failed to present race-neutral reasons for striking those five black veniremembers. The Court of Criminal Appeals, on return to remand, reversed Harrell's conviction and remanded the case for a new trial. The State again petitioned for a writ of certiorari, and this Court granted the petition. The Court stated the following in Harrell v. State, 571 So.2d 1270, 1271-72 (Ala.1990), cert. denied, 499 U.S. 984, 111 S.Ct. 1641, 113 L.Ed.2d 736 (1990) ("Harrell II "):
In Harrell II, the Court pointed out that the defendant presented evidence "that the five blacks who were struck from the venire shared only one characteristic--their membership in the black race--and that in all other respects they were as heterogeneous a group as the community as a whole." 571 So.2d at 1272. The Court also pointed out that "the prosecutor engaged in a rather limited voir dire," and that "[t]he record fail[ed] to show that any of the five blacks responded to the prosecutor's [voir dire] questions in such a way as to give any insight into why they were stricken." Id. Finally, the Court in Harrell II noted that the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit had already held, under the Swain v. Alabama 2 test, that the Mobile County district attorney's office, which had brought the charges against Harrell, had a history of discriminatorily striking blacks. Id.
Thus, the emphasized statement near the end of the two paragraphs quoted above from Harrell II was obiter dictum. The Court stated that "[w]hen the evidence shows only that blacks were struck and that a greater percentage of blacks sat on the jury than sat on the lawfully established venire, an inference of discrimination has not been created." 571 So.2d at 1271. In Harrell's case, that was not the only thing shown, as the Court proceeded to illustrate.
Although the principle stated in Harrell II appears logical from one perspective, i.e., if statistics can be used to show the presence of a discriminatory impact, then they can also be used to show the absence of such an impact, this...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Brown v. State
...deference, and we will reverse such a ruling only if it is clearly erroneous. Ex parte Branch, 526 So.2d 609 (Ala.1987); Ex parte Thomas, 659 So.2d 3 (Ala.1994); Lynn v. State, 543 So.2d 709 (Ala.1988), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 945, 110 S.Ct. 351, 107 L.Ed.2d 338 (1989)." Talley v. State, 687......
-
Ingram v. Stewart
...of prima facie discrimination." Mines v. State, 671 So. 2d 121, 123 (Ala. Crim. App. 1995); Davis v. State. See also Ex parte Thomas, 659 So. 2d 3 (Ala. 1994). Even if the prosecution uses all its peremptory strikes to exclude black veniremembers, a trial court is not required to find that ......
-
Wilson v. State
...venire to a 12-member jury. The state used fewer than 22% of its strikes to remove members of the venire who were black. Cf. Ex parte Thomas, 659 So.2d 3 (Ala.1994) (holding that the use of a large percentage of strikes to remove blacks from a jury presents a prima facie case of The mere fa......
-
Pressley v. State
...162, 168 (Ala.), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 1000, 118 S.Ct. 568, 139 L.Ed.2d 408 (1997); Ex parte Branch, 526 So.2d at 622-23; Ex parte Thomas, 659 So.2d 3 (Ala.1994). Pressley argues that the trial court erred by denying his motion challenging the venire on the basis that blacks were unreprese......