State v. Pierre

CHEHARDY, Judge.

Defendant, Terrence Pierre, appeals his conviction of armed robbery, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:64. Following his trial by a 12-person jury, he was sentenced to 20 years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence.

On appeal defendant alleges the trial judge erred in refusing to empanel a new jury after it was demonstrated that the State used peremptory challenges to exclude black persons from the jury for reasons unrelated to the trial. In addition defendant contends that the evidence was insufficient to justify the verdict, and further…