State v. Dugas

691 So. 2d 197, 96 La.App. 1 Cir. 1006, 1997 La. App. LEXIS 380, 1997 WL 78027
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 14, 1997
DocketNo. 96 KA 1006
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 691 So. 2d 197 (State v. Dugas) 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. Dugas, 691 So. 2d 197, 96 La.App. 1 Cir. 1006, 1997 La. App. LEXIS 380, 1997 WL 78027 (La. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

|2LeBLANC, Judge.

The defendant, Willard B. Dugas, III, was charged by bill of information with illegal possession of stolen things valued at five hundred dollars or more, in violation of La. R.S. 14:69. He pled not guilty and, after trial by jury, was found guilty as charged. The imposition of the defendant’s sentence was deferred; and he was placed on active supervised probation for five years with a number of special conditions. The defendant has appealed, urging two assignments of error.

FACTS

On or about October 25, 1993, Richard Fletcher went to the defendant’s home in East Baton Rouge Parish with a bicycle, a string trimmer, and a leaf blower he had stolen from Edward Sutherland’s utility room. Fletcher asked the defendant to take him to sell the items. Fletcher admitted that he had a drug problem and wanted the money to buy cocaine. According to Fletcher, the defendant drove him to an area “off of Choctaw” where Fletcher sold the trimmer and blower to a friend for thirty dollars. The defendant later drove Fletcher to a Circle K convenience store on Greenwell Street.

Roger Corcoran, a detective with the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriffs Department, was dispatched to the Circle K store to investigate a report of two white males trying to sell a bicycle for $10.00. When Corcoran arrived at the store at approximately 3:55 a.m., he observed a bicycle parked near an automobile, a black male looking at the bicycle, and the defendant and Fletcher standing in the area. Corcoran approached the men and asked who owned the bicycle. According to Corcoran, the men initially claimed they did not know to whom the bicycle belonged, but Fletcher subsequently stated that the bicycle belonged to him. Corcoran checked the bicycle’s registration and learned the bicycle belonged to Sutherland and that it had [199]*199been stolen. The ^defendant and Fletcher were arrested. After being advised of his rights, the defendant gave a statement to the police wherein he admitted taking Fletcher to sell the items. However, the defendant contended that he did not know that the items were stolen.

ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER ONE

In his first assignment of error, the defendant contends that the trial court erred in overruling his objection, under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), thus forcing him to submit to a discriminatorily chosen jury. In his brief to this court, the defendant argues that the court misapplied the applicable law when it stated that the defendant had to show a systematic exclusion of a cognizable racial group in order to meet the threshold burden of Batson. He contends that he was not required to show that all jurors were being excluded on the basis of race; he only had to show that the proponent of the challenges was exercising them in a discriminatory manner.

A peremptory challenge by the state may not be based solely upon the race of the juror. See La.C.Cr.P. art. 795(C). In Bat-son, the supreme court adopted a three-step analysis to determine whether or not the constitutional rights of prospective jurors have been infringed by impermissible discriminatory practices:

First, the defendant must make a prima facie showing that the prosecutor has exercised peremptory challenges on the basis of race.1 Second, if the requisite showing has been made, the burden shifts to the prosecutor to articulate a race-neutral explanation for striking the jurors in question. Finally, the trial court must determine whether the defendant has carried his burden of proving purposeful discrimination. (citations omitted)

Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352, 358-59, 111 S.Ct. 1859, 1866, 114 L.Ed.2d 395 (1991).

A successful Batson argument requires the defendant to make a prima facie case of race-based exclusion, i.e., that the pertinent circumstances raise an inference that the prosecutor used peremptory challenges to exclude venire members of a cognizable racial group solely on the basis of race. State v. Collier, 553 So.2d 815, 818 (La.1989). The trial court should determine whether the defendant has established the requisite prima facie case of discriminatory selection. State v. Collier, 553 So.2d at 819.

For a Batson challenge to succeed, it is not enough that a racially discriminatory result be evidenced; rather, the result “must ultimately be traced to a racially discriminatory purpose.” Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. at 93, 106 S.Ct. at 1721 (quoting Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229, 240, 96 S.Ct. 2040, 2048, 48 L.Ed.2d 597 (1976)). Thus, the sole focus of the Batson inquiry is upon the intent of the prosecutor at the time he exercised his peremptory strikes. State v. Green, 94-0887, p. 23-24 (La.5/22/95), 655 So.2d 272, 287.

The first step in this process places a burden of production or of “going forward” on the defendant. If the defendant is unable to make out a prima facie case of racial discrimination, then the Batson challenge fails and it is not necessary for the prosecutor to articulate race-neutral explanations for his strikes. The defendant may offer any facts relevant to the question of the prosecutor’s discriminatory intent to satisfy this burden. Such facts include, but are not limited to, a pattern of strikes by a prosecutor against members of a suspect class, statements or actions of .the prosecutor which support an inference that the exercise of peremptory strikes was motivated Lby impermissible considerations, the composition of the venire and of the jury finally impaneled, and any other disparate impact upon the suspect class which is alleged to be the victim of purposeful discrimination. State v. Green, 94-0887 at p. 24, 655 So.2d at 287-88. Disparate impact on a suspect class, while deserving of some weight in the determina[200]*200tion of whether purposeful discrimination exists, is not a dispositive fact, since “[a]n argument relating to the impact of a classification does not alone show its purpose.” Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. at 362, 111 S.Ct. at 1867.

Herein, the defendant entered a Bat-son objection at the conclusion of the voir dire of the first panel of twelve prospective jurors. From this panel, three individuals were chosen to serve on the jury. The objection was directed at the state’s use of peremptory challenges to exclude Laderick June, Michael Alexander, and James Randolph.

The Batson challenge was prompted by the state’s peremptory exclusion of Alexander and Randolph. When making the challenge, defense counsel also included in his objection the state’s peremptory challenge of June. The court stated that the defendant would have to make a showing of “systematic exclusion of blacks” by the prosecutor. The court noted that only two jurors were seated at that point and did not feel that the defendant had met his burden. Defense counsel argued that the prosecutor exercised four peremptory challenges, three of which were against prospective black jurors. The court stated that they still had “a ways to go in this jury selection process.” The court did not feel that they had reached the threshold of what was required in Batson,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
691 So. 2d 197, 96 La.App. 1 Cir. 1006, 1997 La. App. LEXIS 380, 1997 WL 78027, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-dugas-lactapp-1997.