People v. Thomas

I am unable to join with the majority in holding that the State’s use of five of its six peremptory challenges against African-American venirepersons did not violate defendant’s right to equal protection of the law. I believe the reasons offered by the State for excluding certain venirepersons from the jury were pretextual as proscribed in Batson v. Kentucky (1986), 476 U.S. 79, 90 L. Ed. 2d 69, 106 S. Ct. 1712. Consequently, for the following reasons, I must dissent.

Initially, I find it exceedingly troublesome that the trial court requested the State to proffer reasons for use of its…