People v. Lopez

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Clabby, J.), rendered December 6, 1993, convicting him of burglary in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

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

We find that the trial court erroneously rejected the defendant’s peremptory challenge of a prospective juror despite defense counsel’s articulation of nonpretextual, racially-neutral reasons for his challenge. Challenges by the defendant based on jurors’ "crime-victimization status” are not pretextual on their…