People v. Bryant

Case held, decision reserved, and matter remitted to Erie County Court for further proceedings, in accordance with the following memorandum: On appeal from a judgment convicting him of rape in the first degree, defendant contends that the prosecutor impermissibly used a peremptory challenge to exclude the only prospective black juror (see, Batson v Kentucky, 476 US 79; People v Scott, 70 NY2d 420). At his trial in 1983, before Batson was decided, defendant complained that the prosecutor’s peremptory challenge to the single black potential juror resulted in an all-white jury deciding whether…