MacOn v. State

Clarence Macon, the appellant, was convicted of the unlawful distribution of cocaine and was sentenced to life imprisonment as a habitual felony offender. He raises four issues on this direct appeal from that conviction.

I

The appellant claims that the prosecution did not give a race-neutral reason, as required by Batson v. Kentucky,476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), for the striking of veniremember Deborah Arnold. The prosecutor's stated reason for striking Ms. Arnold was:

"[S]he returned a not . . . guilty on a DUI as did white jurors, white venire members number 22 and 24. I…