People v. Turner

Opinion

MOSK, J.

This is an automatic appeal (Pen. Code, § 1239, subd. (b)) from a judgment of death under the 1978 death penalty law (id., § 190.1 et seq.). The record demonstrates that the prosecutor used his peremptory challenges to strike Black prospective jurors in a racially discriminatory manner for the apparent purpose of obtaining an all-White jury to try this Black defendant for crimes against White victims. The trial judge com*715pounded the error by failing in his duty to carefully evaluate the prosecutor’s proffered explanations for these challenges in light of all the circumstances of…