HARRIELL v. State

Appellant was convicted of robbery, burglary, grand theft, and attempted aggravated battery. We write to address his argument that the state improperly exercised a peremptory challenge against an African-American juror. We affirm, because appellant failed to preserve his claim that the prosecutor’s challenge to a prospective juror was based on non-verbal behavior unsupported by the record.

The state exercised a peremptory challenge against juror Sanders. The prosecutor explained that the juror “was sleeping. He had his eyes closed and I was watching him for ten minutes.” The attorney for the…