State v. Johnson

OPINION

RUSSELL A. ANDERSON, Justice.

We review appellant Sammie Lamont Johnson’s convictions and sentences for the crimes of first-degree premeditated murder, Minn.Stat. § 609.185(1) (1998), and first-degree felony-murder during the commission of an aggravated robbery, Minn.Stat. § 609.185(3) (1998). On appeal, Johnson argues that the state’s peremptory strike of an African American woman from the venire constituted purposeful racial discrimination in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Johnson also argues that the evidence was insufficient to support the…