Hill v. Berry

In this appeal, we decide whether a litigant exercised his peremptory strikes to exclude African-Americans from the jury in violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution and the rule pronounced in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), extended to civil actions in Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Co., Inc., 500 U.S. 614 (1991), and applied in Faison v. Hudson, 243 Va. 397, 417 S.E.2d 305 (1992).

Soloman M. Hill filed his motion for judgment against Okey K. Berry. Hill alleged that he was injured as a result of Berry’s negligent operation of an…