Melendez v. State

Jairo Josué Melendez appeals his conviction and sentence for attempted first degree murder. He urges reversal based on the improper refusal by the trial court to permit the exercise of a defense peremptory challenge of a juror who ended up serving as the foreperson. We determine that the trial court’s finding that the reasons given by defense counsel for the peremptory challenge were pretextual was not clearly erroneous.

Melendez is a Hispanic male, as was the victim. When Melendez exercised a peremptory challenge on juror James Green, the State objected because it was the fifth white male…