People v. Beauvais

• Decision Date: 24 April 2017
• Docket Number: Supreme Court Case No. 14SC938
• Citation: 393 P.3d 509
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Petitioner, v. Heather BEAUVAIS, Respondent.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

393 P.3d 509

The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado, Petitioner,

v.Heather BEAUVAIS, Respondent.

Supreme Court Case No. 14SC938

Supreme Court of Colorado.

April 24, 2017

Attorneys for Petitioner: Cynthia H. Coffman, Attorney General, Kevin E. McReynolds, Assistant Attorney General, Denver, Colorado

Attorney for Respondent: Michelle Lee Lazar, Denver, Colorado

Attorneys for Amicus Curiae Colorado Criminal Defense Bar: Colorado Criminal Defense Bar and University of Colorado School of Law, Margaret Ann England, Scott Adam Moss, Boulder, Colorado

En Banc

JUSTICE BOATRIGHT delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶1 This case concerns the third step of the analysis laid out in Batson v. Kentucky , 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), which requires trial courts to determine whether a party raising a Batson objection proved by a preponderance of the evidence that opposing counsel exercised a peremptory challenge to excuse a potential juror on the basis of race or gender. Specifically, we consider whether the court of appeals erred in its review of the trial court's Batson ruling by: (1) remanding for specific credibility findings of the prosecution's non-demeanor-based reasons for its peremptory challenges, (2) refusing to credit the prosecution's demeanor-based reasons because the trial court did not expressly find them to be credible, and (3) conducting flawed comparative juror analyses.¹

¶2 First, we hold that an appellate court conducting a clear error review should defer to a trial court's ultimate Batson ruling so long as the record reflects that the trial court weighed all of the pertinent circumstances and it supports the court's conclusion as to whether the objecting party proved purposeful discrimination by a preponderance of the evidence. Second, we hold that a trial court's failure to make specific credibility findings about demeanor-based reasons does not—on its own—prevent a reviewing court from concluding that the trial court credited those reasons. Third, we hold that appellate courts may conduct comparative juror analyses despite an objecting party's failure to argue a comparison to the trial court, but only where the record facilitates a comparison of whether the jurors are similarly situated. An empaneled juror is similarly situated to a dismissed potential juror for the purposes of an appellate court's comparative juror analysis if the empaneled juror shares the same characteristics for which the striking party dismissed the potential juror.

¶3 We conclude that the trial court here did not commit clear error in step three of its Batson analysis and that remand is unnecessary.

We therefore reverse the judgment of the court of appeals.

I. Facts and Procedural History

¶4 The People charged Heather Beauvais with extortion and three counts of stalking in connection with her repeated attempts to contact a man whom she met on the internet. The matter proceeded to a jury trial. To begin jury selection, the court seated twenty-five potential jurors in the jury box and placed the remainder of the venire in the back of the courtroom in the order that they would be called to replace jurors who were later excused. During jury selection, potential jurors provided some basic information about their families, occupations, prior jury service, and connections to people working in law enforcement. The court informed the venire of applicable legal concepts, inquired about any hardships the jurors might suffer if selected to serve, and asked the jurors about their willingness to take an oath to follow the law. The parties then conducted voir dire of the twenty-five jurors in the jury box. The parties agreed to excuse six potential jurors—three women and three men—for cause or hardship. As the court excused each person, the potential juror from the back of the courtroom who was next in order entered the jury box and assumed the excused juror's seat. The trial court asked each of these replacements to answer the initial background questions and then allowed the parties to question them.

¶5 After both sides passed the jurors for cause, the trial court gave each side the opportunity to exercise its peremptory challenges. Each party had six available peremptory challenges and, beginning with the prosecution, alternated as they excused jurors one by one.² The parties could only use a peremptory challenge on the first thirteen jurors seated in the box. When a party excused a potential juror using a peremptory challenge from the first thirteen positions, the next potential juror in line from the remaining jurors would assume that juror's number and seat. As a result, the parties knew who the replacement juror would be when they exercised a peremptory challenge. As the parties exercised each peremptory challenge, the court released the excused potential jurors from jury duty and allowed them to leave the courtroom.

¶6 The prosecution excused a total of five jurors, all of whom were women, while Beauvais excused six jurors, all of whom were men. The final jury consisted of nine male and three female jurors, with a female alternate juror. The record indicates that the last potential juror in the jury box, who was not empaneled because the prosecution did not exercise its final peremptory challenge, was also female.

¶7 Beauvais objected under Batson after the prosecution's third, fourth, and fifth uses of its peremptory challenges, arguing that the prosecution's decision to excuse only women established a prima facie case of discrimination. The trial court deferred ruling on the objections until both sides finished using their peremptory challenges. At that point, Beauvais highlighted that, although thirteen of the thirty-one potential jurors in the initial venire were women, only four would serve on the jury because the court had excused three for cause or hardship, the prosecution had peremptorily excused five, and one was never empaneled because the prosecution had waived its final challenge. Finally, Beauvais also argued that none of the excused women had given responses that would indicate a pro-defendant bias, while some had even given responses traditionally considered favorable to the prosecution.

¶8 The prosecutor began his response by admitting that it had been some time since he had encountered Batson and that he had "never heard it [argued] in terms of gender." He contended that, in any event, Beauvais had failed to make a prima facie showing of discrimination that would warrant a full Batson analysis because four women (including the alternate) remained on the jury.

¶9 The trial court disagreed. Recognizing that the prosecution had exercised all of its peremptory challenges to excuse women, the court found that Beauvais had established a prima facie case of discrimination and, proceeding to step two of Batson , required the prosecution to provide gender-neutral reasons for its challenges. In response, the prosecutor offered several reasons for each peremptory challenge:

Juror [S.B.] , looked disinterested ^[3] during the questioning. She offered no—she never raised her hand for any issue. Never nodded when another juror spoke and oftentimes was looking away from me during my questioning looking at her watch. She appeared to me to be young and had no kids.

Juror [L.G.] , during the period when we were waiting for the remainder of the jurors to come back[,] she was in the back of the courtroom and she was coughing heavily. I don't know if she was sick. She never indicated on the record that she was sick. But that was the impression I got.

Her husband is in the legal field. She has two daughters. One of which she said was stalked. I think it is inappropriate to have someone whose family member so closely alleged to have been a victim of the same crime that we're charging here.

Juror [K.G.] , is in college.... Has no kids. Appeared to be young. And it sounds as though she had a relationship with a large amount of law enforcement officers from the community from which she came to Denver.

Juror [A.B.] , is also in college. Appeared to me to be young. Does not have any kids and did not expand on any of her comments when asked specifically about what we had spoken with [sic] prior to her getting on the panel. She seemed dead pan to me and gave no detailed explanations of why she was saying yes or no.

Juror [J.T.] , also currently in college.... She also appeared young. Appeared disinterested. Did not volunteer any answers to my questions, although I tried to make eye contact with her to engage her in conversation. She never raised her hand or volunteered any information.

¶10 The trial court then gave Beauvais an opportunity to respond to the prosecution's reasons. Beauvais argued that many of the prosecution's reasons were pretextual. As relevant here, Beauvais first asserted that four men on the jury did not have children, even though the prosecution partially based its challenges to three female potential jurors on this same trait. Second, as to the prosecution's reason that four female jurors appeared young or were attending college, Beauvais argued that three male jurors who were slated to serve on the jury also appeared young and "college age." Third, Beauvais stated that the prosecution "did not inquire as to [L.G.'s] health" and thus could not rely upon that reason for excusing her. Finally, Beauvais asserted that the prosecution's decision to waive its last peremptory challenge showed purposeful discrimination because exercising that challenge would have replaced a male juror with a female one. Beauvais did not comment on the demeanor of any of the jurors or in any way build a record as to juror demeanor.

¶11 The trial court asked if the prosecution wished to respond to Beauvais's arguments comparing certain male jurors to the dismissed female jurors. The prosecution noted that each of its peremptory challenges stemmed from the combination of several reasons, not just each reason individually: "When you look at each individual...