State v. Gill

*294Initially, I point out that I agree with the majority’s conclusion that the solicitor’s explanation for striking the black juror because he thought she and Gill once lived on the same street is racially neutral. I do not agree, however, that this racially neutral reason is sufficient to sustain the strike of the black juror if the solicitor’s second reason for the same peremptory strike (the hardship explanation) is found pretextual. As I read the record, the trial judge concluded that inasmuch as the solicitor struck the black juror for a racially neutral reason (lived on the same street as…