Legal News

Courts - "Reasonable or Discriminatory The Peremptory Strike Conundrum"

U.S. Supreme Court and Racially Discriminatory Strikes
The Supreme Court of the United States reversed a brutal murder conviction yesterday concluding that the prosecutor’s peremptory strike of a black college student appeared to be racially discriminatory...

Forfeiting Peremptory Challenges Used in a Discriminatory Manner is a Permissible Remedy for Batson Violations
The Court of Appeals, in People v Luciano, 2008 NY Slip Op 04898 [6/3/08] has held that forfeiture or permeptory challenges is a permissible remedy for attorneys who exercise peremtory challenges in violation of the constitiuion under Batson v Kentucky, 476 US 79 [1986] and its progeny...

One Double Strike
I just compared notes with the prosecutor on my trial case. In picking a jury of 12 out of a panel of 65, exercising 10 peremptory challenges each, we made one double strike. © Mark Bennett for Houston Criminal Defense Lawyer, 2008...

People v. Gonzales (Cal. Ct. App. - July 30, 2008)
When you're going to use your first four peremptory challenges to strike Hispanic jurors, at a minimum, you've got to be more subtle about it. Sure, maybe you can get away with striking the guy with the baggy pants...

"Is This Thing On"
Read the newest Batson case from the Sixth Circuit and you'll treat courtroom cameras with new respect. "The other one is already off" The voir dire in Frederick Harris's 1998 trial for kidnapping and robbery must have seemed absolutely typical...