Steven Crittenden v. Kevin Chappell

Due process demands that no defendant should face a biased jury. Nonetheless, the mental- gymnastics demanded by a retrospective jury analysis taking place decades after the trial suggest that Justice Marshall was prescient in his concurrence in Batson: “The decision today will not end the racial discrimination that peremp-tories inject into the jury-selection process. That goal can be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely.” Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 102-03, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986) (Marshall J., concurring).

I part ways with the majority’s ultimate…