Yancey v. State

The appellant, Vernon Lamar Yancey, was convicted of murdering Mattie Sports during the course of a robbery, an offense defined as capital by § 13A-5-40(a)(2), Ala. Code 1975. The jury, by a vote of 10 to 2, recommended that Yancey be sentenced to death. The trial court accepted the jury's recommendation and sentenced Yancey to death by electrocution.

Because we are reversing this case on a Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), claim we will not recite the facts surrounding the offense.

Yancey argues that the prosecutor violated Batson, by using 12 of his 15 strikes to remove black…