People v. Blunt
| Decision Date | 07 October 1991 |
| Citation | 574 N.Y.S.2d 812,176 A.D.2d 741 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE, etc., Respondent, v. Robert BLUNT, Appellant. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
Matthew Muraskin, Hempstead (Kent V. Moston, of counsel), for appellant.
Denis Dillon, Dist. Atty., Mineola (Bruce E. Whitney and John F. McGlynn, of counsel), for respondent.
Before KUNZEMAN, J.P., and KOOPER, SULLIVAN and O'BRIEN, JJ.
MEMORANDUM BY THE COURT.
Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Nassau County (Orenstein, J.), rendered November 9, 1987, convicting him of assault in the first degree and burglary in the first degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence. By opinion and order of this court dated October 22, 1990, the case was remitted to the County Court, Nassau County, to hear and report concerning the prosecutor's exercise of peremptory challenges, and the appeal was held in abeyance in the interim (see, People v. Blunt, 162 A.D.2d 86, 561 N.Y.S.2d 90). The County Court has now complied.
ORDERED that the judgment is reversed, on the law, and a new trial is ordered. The facts have been considered and are determined to have been established.
At the Batson hearing (Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69), the prosecutor was unable to recall his specific reasons for peremptorily striking all but two of 11 female prospective jurors. He provided a statement as to his general practice regarding jury selection, which he was unable to relate to this particular case, and simply denied any discriminatory intent in the exercise of peremptory challenges. At the trial, he had admitted that he was seeking to secure a gender-balanced jury in the face of a venire which he believed to be predominantly female.
Inasmuch as the prosecutor's testimony "amounted to little more than a denial of discriminatory purpose and a general assertion of good faith" (People v. Bozella, 161 A.D.2d 775, 776, 556 N.Y.S.2d 121), the People failed to satisfy their burden of overcoming the presumption of discrimination found by this court (see, People v. Dove, 172 A.D.2d 768, 569 N.Y.S.2d 147; People v. Sandy, 164 A.D.2d 898, 559 N.Y.S.2d 576; People v. Bozella, supra ).
The defendant's claim regarding the sufficiency of the evidence in support of his conviction of assault in the first degree is unavailing. By failing to assert the claims in support of his argument for dismissal of this count of the indictment with specificity before the trial court, the defendant...
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