Stanton v. State

On the morning of December 31, 1989, the body of Sarah Brown was found in a field in Evergreen, Alabama. She had been stabbed 67 times. The appellant, Jimmy Lavon Stanton, was convicted of her murder and was sentenced as a habitual felony offender to imprisonment for life without parole. He raises five issues in this direct appeal from his conviction.

I

The appellant states his first argument as follows: "The [appellant] was denied equal protection of the law in that the State exercised peremptory challenges to remove from the venire members of the [appellant's] race." Appellant's brief at 9.…