Edmonds v. State

This case involves the exercise of peremptory challenges under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S. Ct. 1712, 90 L. Ed. 2d 69 (1986). The principle question raised in the certiorari petition is whether the trial court erred in creating a remedy after finding a Batson violation. Unfortunately, because the trial court failed to make the necessary findings as to purposeful discrimination required by Batson, we are unable to answer the question. We shall therefore remand the case to the trial court to enable the court to evaluate the credibility of the prosecutor's race-neutral explanations and to determine whether petitioner carried his burden of proving purposeful discrimination. As a predicate to petitioner's conclusion that the prosecutor exercised peremptory challenges in violation of the strictures of Batson, he maintains that a uniform policy of exercising a peremptory challenge to all jurors with relatives who have been convicted of a crime, without regard to the particular circumstances of the case, is inherently discriminatory and violates the rubrics of Batson. We do not agree.