State v. Gilmore

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

GARIBALDI, J.

This appeal presents the issue whether a prosecutor’s use of peremptory challenges to exclude every black potential petit *517juror violates a defendant’s constitutional right to trial by an impartial jury drawn from a representative cross-section of the community. This is a question of first impression for us. We hold that Article I, paragraphs 5, 9, and 10 of the New Jersey Constitution forbid a prosecutor to exercise peremptory challenges to remove potential petit jurors who are members of a cognizable group on the basis of their presumed…