State v. Belton

I join in the dissent of Justice Martin. I am writing separately in order to register my dissatisfaction with the majority’s treatment of the defendants’ peremptory challenge claim. Specifically, I disagree with the mode of analysis employed by the majority in discussing the defendants’ argument that the prosecutor’s use of peremptory challenges to exclude blacks violated their sixth amendment right to an impartial jury selected from a fair cross-section of the community.

As the majority correctly notes, the defendants explicitly argue that this Court should adopt the reasoning of McCray v.…