Cuestas v. State

OPINION

RICHARDS, Justice.

During jury selection in Appellant Fredde Lopez Cuestas’s trial for delivery of a controlled substance, the State exercised a peremptory strike on an African American veni-reperson. Cuestas objected to the strike on the basis of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). The State responded that it struck the venireper-son on the race-neutral grounds that he was “liberal.” Cuestas contends the State’s questioning of the venireperson did not support the conclusion that he was “liberal.”

Cuestas appeals his conviction and thirty-year sentence.…