State v. Lucas

OPINION

GARBARINO, Judge.

¶ 1 The defendant, DeAndre Lavar Lucas, appeals his convictions for attempted sexual assault, sexual abuse of a child under the age of fifteen, and kidnapping. The defendant contends that the trial court erred when, despite defense counsel’s Batson 1 objection, it permitted the prosecutor to peremptorily strike the only African American panel member based on the pretext that he was a “southern male.” We agree and reverse.

¶ 2 On a December evening in 1998, the defendant, who was eighteen years old at the time, attacked the victim, a fourteen-year-old female, and stole…