Ex Parte Thomas

A jury convicted Robert Thomas of murder, based on evidence that he stabbed Gleonard G. Holt to death outside a Selma lounge. Thomas was sentenced to a term of 30 years in the state penitentiary for the murder conviction. Thomas appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals, which affirmed his conviction with an unpublished memorandum, 587 So.2d 1118. This Court granted Thomas' petition for the writ of certiorari to examine the issue whether the trial court, at a hearing on Thomas's motion challenging the State's use of its peremptory challenges as being racially discriminatory, see Batson v.…