Card v. United States

STEADMAN, Associate Judge:

During jury selection in a murder trial in 1993, one potential juror, a 33-year-old African-American male, had close cropped hair and was wearing a white shirt and bow tie. He was Juror 333. The prosecutor exercised one of his peremptory strikes against this juror out of expressed concern that the juror might be a follower of Louis Farrakhan. The principal issue on appeal is whether this exclusion was constitutionally discriminatory on the basis of religion in violation of the doctrine of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986).

We agree…