Greer v. State
The trial court incorrectly overruled two of the defendant's Batson objections to the State's use of peremptory strikes against African-American jurors during his trial for a drug offense. The State used 100 percent of its peremptory strikes to eliminate
African-American venire members when only 27 percent of the panel was
African-American. One African-American panelist was struck after
disclosing that a relative had been through the criminal justice
system, while a white panelist with a similar experience was not and
the State did not conduct any further individualized questioning of
that African-American juror. The State then struck another
African-American jury pool member based on his response to a question
regarding officer credibility when the record reflects that several
other jurors also expressed the same viewpoint.
