Chambers v. State

878 So. 2d 153, 2004 Miss. App. LEXIS 42, 2004 WL 117941
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJanuary 27, 2004
DocketNo. 2002-KA-01266-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 878 So. 2d 153 (Chambers v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chambers v. State, 878 So. 2d 153, 2004 Miss. App. LEXIS 42, 2004 WL 117941 (Mich. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinions

CHANDLER, J.,

for the Court.

¶ 1. Travis L. Chambers was convicted for the crime of sale of cocaine within fifteen hundred feet of a church in Waynesboro, Mississippi. Chambers was sentenced to a term of twenty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections as a prior convicted felon. Following the trial, Chambers’ motions for a JNOV or in the alternative, a new trial were denied by the trial court. Feeling aggrieved, Chambers appeals the following errors:

I.THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY VIOLATED BATSON BY USING HIS PEREMPTORY CHALLENGES TO PURPOSEFULLY STRIKE AFRICAN AMERICANS FROM THE JURY POOL, EVEN THOUGH THE RACE NEUTRAL REASONS GIVEN FOR THE STRIKES APPLIED TO WHITES WHOM THE STATE ACCEPTED.

II. THE TRIAL COURT COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR BY ALLOWING THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI TO INTRODUCE THE ALLEGED COCAINE INTO EVIDENCE OVER THE OBJECTION OF THE DEFENDANT.

III. THE TRIAL COURT COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR BY FAILING TO GRANT A DIRECTED VERDICT AND THE VERDICT WAS AGAINST THE OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE.

¶ 2. Finding the issues raised by Chambers without merit, we affirm the trial court’s rulings.

FACTS

¶ 3. On September 12, 2001, undercover officer Chad McElvin and confidential informant Karen Gibbs met in Wayne County, Mississippi in order to purchase narcotics from drug violators in Waynesboro, Mississippi. Gibbs’ automobile was wired with audio and video equipment in order to record the transactions. As Gibbs turned down Central Avenue in Waynesboro, Mississippi three African American males approached the automobile and offered to sell them some crack cocaine. Two males each gave Gibbs a rock-like substance in exchange for forty dollars. McElvin and Gibbs left Central Avenue and proceeded to a post-buy location where they handed the substances to Officer Martin Over-street, who is the Commander of the South Mississippi Narcotics Task Force.

¶ 4. The audio and video tapes were then removed from the automobile. The videotape was later shown to another Waynes-[155]*155boro police officer, Leonard Frost, who viewed the tape, and identified Chambers as a seller of the substance. Frost testified that he knew Chambers and his parents from his years on the police force which enabled Frost to identify Chambers on the videotape. The undercover officer, Chad McElvin, also identified Chambers as a seller of the illegal substances through a photographic lineup. Officer Overstreet testified that the drugs were sold within a tenth of a mile of a church on Central Avenue.

¶ 5. Chambers was tried and convicted for sale of cocaine within fifteen hundred feet of a church. He was sentenced to serve a term of twenty years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

I. DID THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY VIOLATE BATSON BY USING HIS PEREMPTORY CHALLENGES TO PURPOSEFULLY STRIKE AFRICAN AMERICANS FROM THE JURY POOL, EVEN THOUGH THE RACE NEUTRAL REASONS GIVEN FOR THE STRIKES APPLIED TO WHITES WHOM THE STATE ACCEPTED?

¶ 6. Chambers claims that the proscriptions against using peremptory jury challenges for racially-motivated reasons, as announced in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), were violated when the State used four of its permitted six challenges to exclude African American jurors. Chambers argues that the race-neutral reasons offered by the State were a pretext to hide the State’s true purpose of excluding African American jurors. During voir dire at Chambers’ trial, both Caucasian and African American jurors answered questions that they had relatives in their families who were prior convicted felons or had pending felony charges. Chambers argues that the striking of African American jurors on the basis of a prior felony record violated Batson because Caucasian jurors whose family members included felons were not struck from the panel.

¶ 7. Batson provides the court with procedures to follow in detecting the use of peremptory challenges to remove members of an identified racial group from jury service based on their racial classification. Batson, 476 U.S. at 96, 106 S.Ct. 1712. Traditionally, under Batson, in order for the defendant to raise a prima facie case that the prosecution has improperly struck a potential juror on the basis, of race, it must be shown (1) that he is “a member of a cognizable racial group,” and that the prosecution has “exercised peremptory challenges to remove from the venire members of the defendant’s race”; (2) that the defendant is entitled to rely on the fact that peremptory challenges allow “those to discriminate who are of a mind to discriminate”; and (3) that “these facts and any other relevant circumstances raise an inference that the [State] used that practice to exclude the veniremen from the petit jury on account of their race.” Id. The trial court should consider all relevant circumstances in determining whether the defendant has made the requisite prima facie showing of discrimination. Id. If the trial court determines that the defendant has made a prima facie showing of discrimination, the burden then shifts to the State to announce race-neutral reasons for the exclusion of those people from the venire. Id. at 97, 106 S.Ct. 1712.

¶ 8. This Court points out that the Mississippi Supreme Court has adopted the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Powers v. Ohio, 499 U.S. 400, 415, 111 S.Ct. 1364, 113 L.Ed.2d 411, (1991), which found contrary to Batson, that people of the same race are not required for racially based challenges. In Puckett v. State 788 [156]*156So.2d 752 (¶ 10) (Miss.2001) the court wrote:

that a defendant may object to racially-based exercises of peremptory challenges whether or not the excluded jurors and the defendant are of the same race. This holding, in essence, eliminates the first two factors required by Batson. Bush v. State, 585 So.2d 1262, 1267-68 (Miss.1991). Thus, the pivotal question is “whether the opponent of the strike has met the burden of showing that proponent has engaged in a pattern of strikes based on race or gender, or in other words ‘the totality of the relevant facts gives rise to an inference of discriminatory purpose.’ ” Randall v. State, 716 So.2d 584, 587 (Miss.1998) (quoting Batson, 476 U.S. at 94, 106 S.Ct. at 1721).

¶ 9. The defendant is also allowed to rebut the reasons offered by the State. Bush v. State, 585 So.2d 1262, 1268 (Miss. 1991). However, if the defendant offers no rebuttal, the trial court is to only examine the reasons given by the State. Id. The Mississippi Supreme Court requires the trial court to make findings of fact on the record to support the court’s ultimate ruling on a Batson challenge. Hatten v. State, 628 So.2d 294, 298 (Miss.1993). When these findings are subjected to review on appeal, the standard for appellate review is that the appellate court may not intercede unless the trial court’s findings appear clearly erroneous or against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. Id. at 299.

¶ 10. The Court now turns to the facts of this particular case. Because Chambers’ case was not a capital case, the State was given six peremptory challenges in the selection of a jury.

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Bluebook (online)
878 So. 2d 153, 2004 Miss. App. LEXIS 42, 2004 WL 117941, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chambers-v-state-missctapp-2004.