People v. Mandinga

—Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Rosenzweig, J.), rendered April 1, 1997, convicting him of unauthorized use of a vehicle in the third degree and resisting arrest, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

Ordered that the judgment is reversed, on the law, and a new trial is ordered.

After the trial court found that the prosecutor had established a prima facie case of racial discrimination by the defense counsel in the exercise of peremptory challenges, the court asked counsel to explain her challenges with respect to several prospective jurors.…