State v. Coleman

949 So. 2d 570, 2007 WL 172055
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 24, 2007
Docket41,764-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 949 So. 2d 570 (State v. Coleman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Coleman, 949 So. 2d 570, 2007 WL 172055 (La. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

949 So.2d 570 (2007)

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee,
v.
Nicky Lavelle COLEMAN, Appellant.

No. 41,764-KA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

January 24, 2007.

*571 Christopher A. Aberle, Louisiana Appellate Project, for Appellant.

*572 Jerry L. Jones, District Attorney, John T. Pham, R. Nicolas Anderson, Assistant District Attorneys, for Appellee.

Before STEWART, GASKINS and MOORE, JJ.

GASKINS, J.

The defendant, Nicky Lavelle Coleman, was convicted of distribution of cocaine. He was adjudicated a second felony offender and sentenced to 15 years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. We affirm the defendant's conviction; we amend and, as amended, affirm his sentence.

FACTS

On January 18, 2005, a "buy/bust" operation was conducted by Lieutenant Mike Rowlan and Sergeant Jay Ellerman of the Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office. They equipped an informant with an audio recording device and $60 in photocopied buy money. They then followed the informant in a surveillance vehicle which was equipped with a video camera. The defendant met the informant at the intersection of 11th and Adams Street in Monroe. The defendant sold $60 worth of cocaine to the informant as the deputies watched and recorded the conversation from about two blocks away. The defendant was immediately arrested.

The defendant was charged with distribution of cocaine. Following a jury trial, he was convicted as charged. The state filed a multiple offender bill in which it alleged that the defendant was a fourth felony offender. Pursuant to a plea bargain, the defendant entered a plea of guilty to being a second felony offender. He was sentenced to 15 years at hard labor without benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence. His motion for reconsideration was denied.

The defendant appeals.

BATSON CHALLENGE

In his only assignment of error, the defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his Batson challenge to the state's use of a peremptory challenge against Betty Hutson, a black prospective juror. He alleged that he carried his burden of demonstrating the state's purposeful discrimination in its use of peremptory challenges.

Of nine prospective African-American jurors not challenged for cause, the state accepted three and used peremptory challenges to strike six. (The defense used a peremptory challenge to excuse one of the three African-Americans that the state was willing to accept.) Ultimately, the 12-person jury included two African-Americans, and a third served as an alternate. Following voir dire, the defense raised a Batson objection, claiming the State used its peremptory challenges to strike potential jurors based solely upon the fact they were African-American. The trial judge denied the defense's Batson objection.

Law

The U.S. Supreme Court in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), held that an equal protection violation occurs if a party exercises a peremptory challenge to exclude a prospective juror on the basis of a person's race. The three-step Batson process was recently described in Rice v. Collins, 546 U.S. 333, ___-___, 126 S.Ct. 969, 973-974, 163 L.Ed.2d 824 (2006), as follows:

A defendant's Batson challenge to a peremptory strike requires a three-step inquiry. First, the trial court must determine whether the defendant has made a prima facie showing that the prosecutor *573 exercised a peremptory challenge on the basis of race. Second, if the showing is made, the burden shifts to the prosecutor to present a race-neutral explanation for striking the juror in question. Although the prosecutor must present a comprehensible reason, the second step of this process does not demand an explanation that is persuasive, or even plausible; so long as the reason is not inherently discriminatory, it suffices. Third, the court must then determine whether the defendant has carried his burden of proving purposeful discrimination. This final step involves evaluating the persuasiveness of the justification proffered by the prosecutor, but the ultimate burden of persuasion regarding racial motivation rests with, and never shifts from, the opponent of the strike. [Internal quotations and citations omitted.]

Louisiana has codified the ruling in Batson in La. C. Cr. P. art. 795.[1]

The race-neutral explanation offered by the state in the second step must be one which is clear, reasonable, specific, legitimate and related to the particular case at bar. State v. Collier, 553 So.2d 815, 820 (La.1989); State v. Wilson, 40,767 (La.App.2d Cir.8/23/06), 938 So.2d 1111. The ultimate burden of persuasion remains on the party raising the challenge to prove purposeful discrimination. Purkett v. Elem, 514 U.S. 765, 768, 115 S.Ct. 1769, 1771, 131 L.Ed.2d 834 (1995)(per curiam); Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352, 359, 111 S.Ct. 1859, 1866, 114 L.Ed.2d 395 (1991).

A reviewing court owes the district judge's evaluations of discriminatory intent great deference and should not reverse them unless they are clearly erroneous. Hernandez, 500 U.S. at 364, 111 S.Ct. at 1868-69; Batson, 476 U.S. at 98, n. 21, 106 S.Ct. at 1724; State v. Elie, XXXX-XXXX (La.7/10/06), 936 So.2d 791; State v. Wilson, supra. The trial court is in a position to observe firsthand the demeanor of the attorneys and the venire persons, the nuances of questions asked, the racial composition of the venire, and the general atmosphere of the voir dire that simply cannot be replicated from a cold transcript. State v. Juniors, 2003-2425 (La.6/29/05), 915 So.2d 291, cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 126 S.Ct. 1940, 164 L.Ed.2d 669 (2006); State v. Lawrence, 40,278 (La.App.2d Cir.3/15/06), 925 So.2d 727; State v. Jones, *574 41,449 (La.App.2d Cir.9/20/06), 940 So.2d 61.

A single strike based upon race supports a Batson claim and requires reversal no matter how ably the state has defended the other strikes. Batson, 476 U.S. at 95, 106 S.Ct. at 1722; State v. Elie, supra; State v. Wilson, supra.

Discussion

As to the first step of the Batson analysis, the trial court did not expressly rule on whether the defendant made out a prima facie case of purposeful discrimination; instead the court moved directly to the second step by ordering the prosecutor to give, for the record, its race-neutral reasons for the use of its peremptory strikes against black prospective jurors. It has been held that a trial court's demand that a prosecutor justify his use of peremptory strikes is tantamount to a finding that the defense has produced enough evidence to support an inference of discriminatory purpose. State v. Green, 94-0887 (La.5/22/95), 655 So.2d 272. In any case, once a prosecutor has offered a race-neutral explanation for the peremptory challenges and the trial court has ruled on the ultimate question of intentional discrimination, the preliminary issue of whether the defendant had made a prima facie showing becomes moot. Hernandez, supra, 500 U.S. at 359, 111 S.Ct.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
949 So. 2d 570, 2007 WL 172055, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-coleman-lactapp-2007.