State v. Moore

469 N.W.2d 269, 1991 Iowa App. LEXIS 15, 1991 WL 66011
CourtCourt of Appeals of Iowa
DecidedFebruary 26, 1991
Docket89-1647
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 469 N.W.2d 269 (State v. Moore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Moore, 469 N.W.2d 269, 1991 Iowa App. LEXIS 15, 1991 WL 66011 (iowactapp 1991).

Opinion

HAYDEN, Judge.

A convenience store clerk was robbed by a black man who held his hand in his pocket and said he had a gun there. The clerk never actually saw the gun. The robber took slightly over $200 in cash.

*270 The clerk reported the robbery, and officers arrived at the convenience store to investigate. During the investigation a police radio was placed on a counter near the clerk. The clerk heard a report on this radio a suspect in the robbery had been apprehended, the suspect acted suspiciously and had tried to flee, and he had slightly over $200 in cash on his person.

Shortly after the clerk heard this radio report, and within two hours after the robbery, police brought the defendant, Maurice Moore, to the convenience store for a “show-up” identification. Moore’s hands were in handcuffs, and he was the only black person present. The clerk identified Moore as the robber.

Moore was charged with the crime of robbery in the second degree while representing he was in the immediate possession and control of a firearm. A jury found him guilty. He appeals. We affirm.

Moore contends the district court erred by sustaining the State’s challenge for cause of one of the two black jurors after the jury had been sworn and testimony began. The juror voluntarily informed the court attendant she was related to Moore by marriage. Her brother was Moore’s uncle, being married to Moore’s maternal aunt. The juror also was acquainted with Moore’s mother, and was a casual friend.

The trial court seated one of the two alternates in Mrs. Jackson’s place. The record reflects the alternates had been present with the jury since the start of the trial.

Moore also contends the district court should have suppressed evidence resulting from the store clerk’s “show-up” identification of Moore as the robber.

Our scope of review is on assigned errors of law. Iowa R.App.P. 4.

I. Striking of Juror

The integrity of our criminal jury system is really the central issue before us. He claims the trial court’s action deprived him of a constitutionally-mandated representative cross-section of the population. See Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 87, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 1718, 90 L.Ed.2d 69, 80-81 (1986). Moore further contends the evidence does not support the challenge for cause striking of the juror.

We first point out the trial court has broad discretion in deciding challenges to jurors. State v. Grove, 171 N.W.2d 519, 520 (Iowa 1969). Additionally:

[T]he State is entitled to the same judicial impartiality and fairness as any other litigant in our courts ... Justice requires ‘a fair opportunity for each side to present its case must be afforded.’ [Citations omitted.]

State v. Ailts, 433 N.W.2d 765, 766 (Iowa App.1988) (quoting State v. Lunden, 297 N.W.2d 232, 235 (Iowa App.1980).

Generally, failure to challenge a juror until after the jury has been sworn constitutes a waiver of any challenges as to that juror’s qualifications. See Turner v. Jones, 215 N.W.2d 289, 290-91 (Iowa 1974); State v. Grove, 171 N.W.2d 519, 520 (Iowa 1969). However, these objections must have been open to discovery during voir dire. Turner, 215 N.W.2d at 290-91; Grove, 171 N.W.2d at 520. In this case, the prosecutor did ask if any prospective jurors knew or were related to the defendant. No one replied. Thus, we determine, as did the trial court, there has been no waiver of the challenge, as Mrs. Jackson did not answer the prosecutor’s question.

We turn now to Moore’s main argument, concerning a representative cross-section of the community sitting on the jury.

“The very idea of a jury is a body ... composed of the peers or equals of the person whose rights it is selected or summoned to determine; that is, of his neighbors, fellows, associates, persons having the same legal status in society as that which he holds.”

Batson, 476 U.S. at 86, 106 S.Ct. at 1717, 90 L.Ed.2d at 80-81 (quoting Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U.S. 303, 308, 25 L.Ed. 664, 666 (1880).

Moore is a black defendant. Mrs. Jackson, the struck juror, was also black. After Mrs. Jackson was struck and the alter *271 nate juror seated, only one black person remained on the jury. Apparently Moore thinks a juror who well could be biased should be left on the jury if both that person and the defendant are of a racial minority. This flies in the face of established constitutional law.

Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most noble. The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.

Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537, 559, 16 S.Ct. 1138, 1146, 41 L.Ed. 256 (1896) (Justice Harlan dissenting).

In holding that racial discrimination in jury selection offends the Equal Protection Clause, the Court in Strauder [v. West Virginia] recognized, however, that a defendant had no right to a “petit jury composed in whole or in part of persons of his own race. ” “The number of our races and nationalities stands in the way or evolution of such a conception” of the demand of equal protection. * * * * * *
The petit jury has occupied a central position in our system of justice by safeguarding a person accused of crime against the arbitrary exercise of power by prosecutor or judge. Those on the venire must be “indifferently chosen,” to secure the defendant’s right under the Fourteenth Amendment to “protection of life and liberty against race or color prej-. udice.”
Racial discrimination in selection of jurors harms not only the accused whose life or liberty they are summoned to try. Competence to serve as a juror ultimately depends on an assessment of individual qualifications and ability impartially to consider evidence presented at a trial. A person’s race simply “is unrelated to his fitness as a juror. ” As long ago as Strauder, therefore, the court recognized that by deny-
ing a person participation in jury service on account of his race, the state unconstitutionally discriminated against the excluded juror.

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Bluebook (online)
469 N.W.2d 269, 1991 Iowa App. LEXIS 15, 1991 WL 66011, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-moore-iowactapp-1991.