People v. Morales

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Albany County (Harris, J.), rendered April 23, 1985, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crime of grand larceny in the second degree.

The main issue in this appeal is whether the People’s exercise of peremptory challenges to black jurors violated this black defendant’s rights under the equal protection clause of the US Constitution 14th Amendment.

It is defendant’s contention that the People exercised peremptory challenges solely to exclude prospective black jurors and thus deprive defendant of an impartial jury of his peers. The record on…