Felkner v. Jackson

A California jury convicted respondent Steven Frank Jackson of numerous sexual offenses stemming from his attack on a 72-year-old woman who lived in his apartment complex. Jackson raised a Batson claim, asserting that the prosecutor exercised peremptory challenges to exclude black prospective jurors on the basis of their race. See Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U. S. 79 (1986). Two of three black jurors had been struck; the third served on the jury. App. to Pet. for Cert. 49-50.

Jackson’s counsel did not object when the prosecutor struck the first of the black jurors, Juror S. Counsel later explained…