People v. Johnson

Opinion

CHIN, J.

During jury selection, each party is entitled to a limited number of peremptory challenges. (Code Civ. Proc., § 231.) However, exercising peremptory challenges to remove prospective jurors solely because of group bias, for example, on racial grounds, violates both the California Constitution (People v. Wheeler (1978) 22 Cal.3d 258 [148 Cal.Rptr. 890, 583 P.2d *1306748] (Wheeler)) and the United States Constitution (Batson v. Kentucky (1986) 476 U.S. 79 [106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69] (Batson)). Both Wheeler and, later, Batson established procedures for courts to follow when one…