Hopkins v. Commonwealth

ELIZABETH A. McCLANAHAN, Judge.

Bernard Hopkins appeals from his conviction of distribution of cocaine. He argues the trial court committed error in overruling his Batson 2 challenge to the Commonwealth’s peremptory strikes of two African-American jurors during selection of the jury. We reverse the trial court.

I. BACKGROUND

During jury selection, the Commonwealth exercised all four of its peremptory strikes to remove African-American jurors. One African-American juror remained on the panel. Hopkins asserted a challenge to the panel arguing it was “not a jury of Mr. Hopkins’ peers.” When the…