Pitchford v. Cain · ¶3
In Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U. S. 79 (1986), this Court held that the Equal Protection Clause bars prosecutors from exercising peremptory challenges based on race. In Batson and subsequent cases, the Court has spelled out how a trial court should determine whether a prosecutor employed a peremptory challenge based on race. After the defendant makes a prima facie showing that a peremptory strike was based on race (step one), the prosecutor must provide a race- neutral reason for the challenged strike (step two). Then, at step three, defense counsel has an opportunity to rebut the prosecutor's race-neutral reason as pretextual, and the trial court in turn decides whether the prosecutor's race- neutral reason for striking a juror is pretextual “in light of all evidence with a bearing on it.” Miller-El v. Dretke, 545 U. S. 231, 252 (2005); see Flowers v. Mississippi, 588 U. S. 284, 301–303…Read in context ›
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