Issue

Batson inquiry—first step not mooted—remanded for appellate review of the trial court's prima facie determination

Summary

During jury selection in a prosecution on charges including two counts of first-degree murder, where defendant raised a Batson objection–asserting that the State had used peremptory challenges based on the race of prospective jurors, thus triggering a potentially three-step process in which the trial court first determines whether defendant has made a prima facie case, and, if so, then permits the State to offer race-neutral explanations for challenges, after which the court would determine whether defendant has shown purposeful discrimination by the State–the first step, in which the trial court held that defendant had failed to establish a prima facie case, was not mooted by the State's subsequent reference to race-neutral reasons for its challenges because the inquiry should have ended after the trial court’s determination in the first step and because the trial court did not rule on the ultimate question of intentional discrimination. The matter was reversed and remanded to the Court of Appeals for consideration of whether the trial court clearly erred in determining that no prima facie case had been established.

Summary from the North Carolina Reports digest (official subject index). Read the opinion →