Charles B. Splunge v. Dick Clark and Indiana Attorney General

CUMMINGS, Circuit Judge.

During jury selection in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, Superior Court, in petitioner Charles Splunge’s trial for murder and robbery, the prosecutor used two of his peremptory challenges to exclude the only two black venire members from the petit jury. Splunge, who is also black, moved to discharge the jury before it was sworn on the basis that the prosecutor had purposefully excluded black potential jurors in violation of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). The trial judge gave the prosecutor an opportunity to respond. Then he denied…