Landis v. State

Appellant, Mitchell Landis (“Defendant”), was charged with trafficking in cocaine. When the case proceeded to a jury trial, the State exercised a peremptory challenge during jury selection on a prospective juror who was African-American. The trial court found the race-neutral reason given by the State to be “genuine” and allowed the strike. Defendant has presented three points on appeal, however, we will address only one — specifically the issue of whether the trial court erred in allowing the State to exercise the peremptory strike under these circumstances.1 On this point, we find there was…