State v. Boston

OPINION

KLEINSCHMIDT, Judge.

The defendant, Kimberly Boston, was found guilty of possession of narcotics, a class 4 felony, and was sentenced to a mitigated term of two years imprisonment. On appeal, she argues that the trial court abused its discretion in accepting the prosecution’s stated reason for exercising a peremptory challenge to remove a Hispanic member of the venire. The prosecutor said he struck the Hispanic woman from the panel because she had only a ninth grade education. We hold that given the nature of this case, it was an abuse of discretion to allow the peremptory challenge…