People v. Muriale

OPINION OF THE COURT

Michael R. Juviler, J.

I. THE QUESTION PRESENTED

In Batson v Kentucky (476 US 79 [1986]), the Supreme Court of the United States reaffirmed that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment forbids a prosecutor at a criminal trial from using peremptory challenges to exclude black potential jurors solely on the basis of race or on the assumption that black jurors will be unable to consider impartially the State’s case against a black defendant; reversing Swain v Alabama (380 US 202), the court held that a defendant can establish a prima facie case of purposeful…