State v. Degree

ORR, Judge.

The defendant argues two issues before this Court. First, he contends that the trial court erred in finding that the prosecutor did not exercise his peremptory challenges for a racially discriminatory reason in the selection of the petit jury; and second, that the trial court erred in failing to declare a mistrial when a juror read a newspaper during an overnight recess which revealed that the defendant may have been HIV positive. We reject these contentions for the reasons set forth below.

I

It is well established in North Carolina that the use of peremptory challenges on the basis…