KARL R. STEPHENS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Florida appellate court reversed a conviction where the trial court failed to resolve a factual dispute about a prospective juror's race and thus improperly excused the state from providing a race-neutral explanation for striking the juror.
When a defendant challenges a peremptory strike as racially motivated, the trial court must resolve any factual dispute about the juror's race, and if the juror is determined to be a member of a protected class, the state must provide a race-neutral reason for the strike.
[1] When a trial court fails to resolve a factual dispute about a prospective juror's race in response to a Batson challenge, the court must assume the juror belongs to the p…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“Because the lower court failed to resolve the fact dispute regarding the prospective juror's race, we must assume that the prospective juror was, in fact, African-American.”
Court's explanation of the proper procedure when trial court fails to make factual findings about juror's race
The state struck an allegedly African-American prospective juror. When the defense challenged the strike as racially motivated, the state acknowledged…
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TORPY, J.
After the defense challenged the state’s motivation for striking an allegedly African-American prospective juror, the state acknowledged that it did not have a race-neutral reason for the strike. Instead, the state contested that the prospective juror was African-American. Rather than resolve the factual dispute, the lower court ruled that, because the state attorney did not know the prospective juror’s race, a race-neutral explanation was unnecessary. We reverse and remand for a new trial.
Under Melbourne v. State, 679 So. 2d 759, 764, n. 2 (Fla.1996), the defense objection was sufficient to require the trial judge to address its merits. Because the lower court failed to resolve the fact dispute regarding the prospective juror’s race, we must assume that the prospective juror was, in fact, African-American. Thus, it was incumbent on the state to offer a race-neutral reason for the strike, which it failed to do. Although the state attorney’s stated subjective belief that the juror was not a member of a distinct racial group might prove relevant to the trial court in assessing the credibility of the state’s proffered explanation for the strike, it does not alleviate this step in the Melbourne procedure.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
PLEUS and ORFINGER JJ., concur.
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Whitby v. State, 933 So. 2d 557 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006)…. 3d DCA 2005); Frazier v. State, 899 So. 2d 1169 (Fla. 4th DCA 2005); Despio v. State, 895 So. 2d 1124 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005); Wallace v. State, 889 So. 2d 928 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004); Thomas v. State, 885 So. 2d 968 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004); Stephens v. State, 884 So. 2d 1071 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004); Russell v. State, 879 So. 2d 1261 (Fla. 3d DCA 2004); Alsopp v. State, 855 So. 2d 695 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003); Douglas v. State, 841 So. 2d 697 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003); Murray v. Haley, 833 So. 2d 877 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003); Daniels v. State…
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State v. Whitby, 975 So. 2d 1124 (Fla. 2008)…(Fla. 3d DCA 1996) (same). . Pickett v. State, 922 So. 2d 987, 992 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005) (reversing because trial court failed to conduct a Neil inquiry and require the striking party to offer a race-neutral reason for the strike); Stephens v. State, 884 So. 2d 1071, 1072 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004) (same); Alsopp v. State, 855 So. 2d 695, 698 (Fla. 3d DCA 2003) (same); Murray v. Haley, 833 So. 2d 877, 880 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003) (reversing because trial court failed to conduct a Neil inquiry and require the striking party…
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United States v. Fabio Ochoa-Vasquez, 428 F.3d 1015 (11th Cir. 2005)…n, but by construing a series of questions by the district court to both Ochoa’s counsel and the United States as a "basis” for denying Ochoa’s Batson challenge, it is the majority that is engaging in unwarranted inferences. . Cf. Stephens v. State, 884 So. 2d 1071 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.2004) (holding that when a criminal defendant had made out a prima facie case of discrimination regarding the prosecution’s strike of an ostensibly African-American juror under Melbourne v. State, 679 So. 2d 759 (Fla.1996), the fact…
Authorities Cited
- Jeanie H. Melbourne v. State, 679 So. 2d 759 (Fla. 1996)