State v. Sparks

Hunt, Justice.

We granted certiorari in Sparks v. State, 180 Ga. App. 467 (349 SE2d 504) (1986) to determine the applicability of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U. S__(106 SC 1712, 90 LE2d 69) (1986) to this case. In Batson, the United States Supreme Court held that a state criminal defendant could establish a prima facie case of racial discrimination violative of the Fourteenth Amendment based on the prosecutor’s use of peremptory challenges to strike members of the defendant’s race from the jury and that, once the defendant had made the prima facie showing, the burden shifted to the prosecution to…