State v. Collier

• Citation: 553 So.2d 815
• Decision Date: 11 December 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-K-1012,88-K-1012
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Calvin COLLIER. 553 So.2d 815
• Court: Supreme Court of Louisiana

Page 815

553 So.2d 815

STATE of Louisiana v. Calvin COLLIER.

No. 88-K-1012.

553 So.2d 815

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

Dec. 11, 1989.

Otha Curtis Nelson, Sr., Baton Rouge, Author Rel Joiner, for applicant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Bryan E. Bush, Jr., Dist. Atty., Kay Kirkpatrick, Janis L. Kile, Asst. Dist. Atty., for respondent.

LEMMON, Justice.

The issue in this case is whether the prosecutor used his peremptory challenges to exclude blacks from the petit jury solely on the basis of their race in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as interpreted in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986).

Facts

Defendant, a black male, was charged with armed robbery. His first trial ended in a mistrial when a jury composed of nine whites and three blacks could not agree on the ten votes necessary for a verdict.

During the voir dire in defendant's second trial his attorney raised an objection that five black prospective jurors had been improperly excused by the prosecutor on peremptory challenges. ¹ The prosecutor, upon instruction by the trial judge, offered racially neutral explanations for these challenges, and the trial judge allowed voir dire to continue. After two more black jurors were peremptorily challenged by the prosecutor, the defense raised a second objection. The prosecutor again offered racially neutral explanations, and the trial judge, although expressing concern over the racial composition of the jury in proportion to that of the parish, allowed voir dire to proceed. The defense made another objection after the prosecutor used his eighth peremptory challenge to exclude a black juror, but the trial judge overruled the objection after the prosecutor gave racially neutral reasons for the challenge.

When voir dire was completed, the prosecutor had used eight of his twelve peremptory challenges. All eight of the prospective jurors who were challenged peremptorily were black. The two black jurors who served on the jury were the first and the eighth jurors chosen.

Defendant was tried and convicted by a twelve-person jury composed of ten white jurors and two black jurors. The poll of the jury was not recorded, but the vote was ten to two for a verdict of guilty as charged.

The court of appeal affirmed the conviction, finding that defendant had not established a prima facie case of discrimination in the prosecutor's exercise of peremptory challenges. 522 So.2d 584. The court noted that there was no pattern of strikes against blacks, the first and eighth selected jurors being black, and there were absolutely no references in the record to racial factors or other such considerations.

We granted defendant's application for certiorari to determine the correctness of the rulings of the courts below. 536 So.2d 1226.

The Batson Decision

In Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759 (1965), the Court recognized the principle that "a state's purposeful or deliberate denial to Negroes on account of race of participation as jurors in the administration of justice violates the Equal Protection Clause". Id. at 203-204, 85 S.Ct. at 826. However, the Court required, as proof of discriminatory purpose sufficient to establish an equal protection violation, a showing of systematic exclusion of jurors on account of race over a number of cases. Id. at 227, 85 S.Ct. at 839.

The Court in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), changed this burden, deciding that evidence of the prosecutor's discriminatory use of peremptory challenges in a single case may be sufficient to constitute an equal protection violation. The Court held that an equal protection violation occurs when the prosecutor, in a case against a member of a cognizable racial group, exercises peremptory challenges to remove members of the defendant's race from the jury venire for a discriminatory purpose. The Court set standards for assessing a prima facie case of purposeful discrimination and placed the burden on the prosecutor, after such a prima facie showing, to come forward with a neutral explanation for challenging black jurors that is related to the particular case. ²

The Court imposed the requirement of a timely objection to the peremptory challenges, but decided not to formulate a procedure for implementing the holding of the case. Noting the wide variety of jury selection practices in state and federal courts across the country, the Court declined to consider whether it is more appropriate for the trial court, upon a finding of discriminatory purpose, to discharge the venire and select a new jury from a panel not previously associated with the case or to disallow the discriminatory challenges and resume selection with the improperly challenged jurors reinstated on the venire.

Justice Powell's majority opinion in Batson, along with the concurring opinion of Justice White (the author of Swain ), placed considerable trust in the perceptive ability and fair-minded attitude of trial judges. Because a trial judge's findings pertaining to purposeful discrimination turn largely on credibility evaluations, such findings should be entitled to great deference by a reviewing court. Id. at 98, note 21, 106 S.Ct. at 1724, note 21.

It has been predicted that the effectiveness of the Batson decision in eliminating racially motivated challenges will depend upon the level of scrutiny applied in the determination of the validity of the racially neutral explanations advanced by the prosecutor for the exercise of peremptory challenges against blacks. Raphael, Discriminatory Jury Selection: Lower Court Implementation of Batson v. Kentucky, 25 Willamette L.J. 259 (1989). In the more than three years since the Batson decision no previous applications for certiorari in post-Batson cases on direct review have raised serious issues as to the trial court's abuse of discretion in finding that the prosecutor advanced valid racially neutral reasons for striking blacks from the jury. ³ Perhaps this is an indication that the trial courts of this state have been successful in recognizing prosecutorial pretext in voir dire and in separating valid racially neutral reasons from pretexts designed to hide discriminatory purpose. Nevertheless, we believe that the Batson objective of limiting racial discrimination in jury selection is attainable only if trial judges rigorously scrutinize prosecutors' explanations of challenges against blacks, particularly those based on irrational or intuitive reasons given after a prima facie showing of discriminatory intent. We further believe that appellate courts should accord great deference to rulings by trial judges in these areas.

In order to provide better guidance for the trial courts of this state we will review in more detail the required standards established by Batson and will apply these standards to the facts of this case.

Prima Facie Case by the Defendant

Under Batson the defendant, after timely objection, must demonstrate a prima facie case of purposeful discrimination. ⁴ To do so, the defendant must establish that he is a member of a cognizable racial group, that the prosecutor has exercised his peremptory challenges to remove other members of that race from the jury, and that these facts, along with the other relevant circumstances, raise an inference that the prosecutor used his peremptory challenges to exclude the veniremen from the jury on account of their race. Id. at 96, 106 S.Ct. at 1722.

The trial judge must determine whether the defendant has established the requisite prima facie case. In making this determination, the trial judge should consider all relevant circumstances, including any pattern of strikes by the prosecutor against black jurors and any questions or statements by the prosecutor during voir dire examination or in exercising his challenges which may support or refute an inference of purposeful discrimination. Id. at 96-97, 106 S.Ct. at 1722-1723.

In the present case the trial judge, without expressly ruling on the issue, apparently found that defendant adequately established a prima facie case of purposeful discrimination. ⁵ After defendant made his first Batson objection, the trial judge expressed concern over the composition of the partial jury (two blacks and seven whites) and then instructed the prosecutor to "state your reasons under Batson". The judge allowed the voir dire to proceed, but also required the prosecutor to state reasons for his challenges when the defendant raised the second and third Batson objections.

The court of appeal concluded that the trial court erred in determining that a prima facie showing of purposeful discrimination had been made by the defendant. The court stated:

There was no 'pattern' of strikes against blacks giving rise to an inference of discrimination because the first juror and eighth juror selected were both black. Our examination of the voir dire shows there was absolutely no reference to racial factors or other such considerations. Nor were there any other circumstances shown on the record which the trial court could have used to make a finding of discrimination against black jurors.

522 So.2d at 590.

We disagree with the court of appeal. An examination of all of the relevant circumstances surrounding the voir dire could reasonably lead a trial judge to infer the existence of purposeful discrimination.

Defendant was black and a member of a cognizable racial group. There was a distinct pattern of strikes against black jurors in that the prosecutor used all eight of his exercised peremptory challenges to excuse black persons from the jury. Although two of the twelve persons who served on the jury were black, the mere presence of blacks on a jury does not necessarily defeat a Batson claim. ⁶ The Court in Batson noted that " '[a] single invidiously discriminatory governmental act' is not 'immunized by the absence of such discrimination in the...