State v. Fuller

This appeal raises the question whether a prosecutor may use peremptory challenges to excuse a potential juror who wears clothing associated with a religious group or who indicates in voir dire that he has worked as a missionary. During jury selection for defendant’s trial, the prosecutor used four of his first five peremptory challenges to excuse African-American venirepersons. Defense counsel objected on the ground that those strikes constituted impermissible discrimination under State v. Gilmore, in which we held that a prosecutor may not use peremptory challenges to exclude African…