Batiste v. State

In this case two significant and complex Constitutional doctrines collide, namely, the right to effective assistance of counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment and the right to a fairly selected jury under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The majority diminishes the effectiveness of both of these Constitutional doctrines with the mechanical application of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), to violations of the Equal Protection Clause recognized in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986).…