A total of 24 White persons and six Black persons are called for jury duty. The trial is for armed robbery, the defendant is Black, and the prosecuting attorney uses peremptory challenges given to him to exclude the six Black people. What should the judge do, according to recent Supreme Court decisions?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The judge should ask the prosecuting attorney to explain the grounds for each of his six decisions to determine if the attorney had grounds for dismissal other than race, according to the Supreme Court decision in Batson v. Kentucky (1986), which held that excluding jurors based on race violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

A Total of 24 White Persons and Six Black Persons