State of Louisiana v. David E. Bender

|tI disagree with the majority’s holding that the State need simply assert that a potential juror has prior arrests or convictions to satisfy its burden of production under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). I also disagree with the majority’s belief that requiring the State to produce the arrest or conviction records turns its burden of production into a burden of persuasion in contravention of Batson. In my view, when a party exercises a peremptory challenge based on information known only to him and not observable during voir dire, the factual basis of…