White v. State

964 So. 2d 1181, 2007 WL 2473195
Court of Appeals of Mississippi·Decided September 4, 2007·No. 2005-KA-01213-COA·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

964 So.2d 1181 (2007)

Jonathan M. WHITE a/k/a Jonathan Maurice White, Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2005-KA-01213-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

September 4, 2007.

*1182 Ross Parker Simons, Richard C. Conant, Pascagoula, attorneys for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Jeffrey A. Klingfuss, attorney for appellee.

Before MYERS, P.J., ISHEE and CARLTON, JJ.

MYERS, P.J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Jonathan Maurice White appeals his October 22, 2004, Jackson County Circuit Court conviction of capital murder. The jury found that White, while attempting to evade an arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence, struck the patrol car of Moss Point Police Officer Larry Lee, resulting in Lee's death. White was sentenced to a life term in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections without the possibility of parole. Aggrieved by the judgment and sentence of the circuit court, White appeals, raising the following issues:

*1183 I. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT ERRED IN ACCEPTING AS RACE-NEUTRAL THE REASONS OFFERED BY THE STATE FOR STRIKING JURORS NOS. 3, 9, 20, AND 29?
II. WHETHER JUROR NO. 30 WAS PROPERLY EXCUSED FOR CAUSE?
III. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT ERRED IN ADMITTING INTO EVIDENCE THE TESTIMONY OF THE STATE'S FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST, DR. PAUL MCGARRY, THAT PATROLMAN LEE WAS OUTSIDE OF HIS PATROL CAR WHEN STRUCK BY WHITE'S VEHICLE?
IV. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT ERRED IN ADMITTING INTO EVIDENCE STATE'S EXHIBITS NOS. 42, 43, 44, AND 45?
V. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT ERRED IN ALLOWING AN INSTRUCTION ON DEPRAVED HEART MURDER UNDER MISSISSIPPI CODE ANNOTATED SECTION 97-3-19(1)(b) WHEN THE INDICTMENT CHARGED WHITE WITH CAPITAL MURDER UNDER MISSISSIPPI CODE ANNOTATED SECTION 97-3-19(2)(a)?
VI. WHETHER THE EVIDENCE WAS SUFFICIENT TO SUPPORT A CAPITAL MURDER CONVICTION?

¶ 2. Finding no error, we affirm White's capital murder conviction and life sentence.

STATEMENT OF THE FACTS

¶ 3. At approximately 10:30 p.m. on the night of October 17, 2002, Patrolman Carlton Logan of the Moss Point Police Department observed a car weaving from side to side and otherwise being driven erratically. When Logan attempted to stop the vehicle, the driver, Jonathan Maurice White, made a sudden U-turn and fled on the wrong side of Mississippi Highway 63. Patrolman Logan then radioed his fellow patrolmen for assistance in apprehending White. In response to Logan's radio transmission, Patrolman Larry Lee positioned his marked police patrol car with flashing blue lights on top of a high-rise bridge spanning Highway 63 to block White's path of escape. Patrolman Lee took a position outside his patrol car. As White approached the apex of the bridge, his vehicle reached a speed of nearly eighty miles per hour. Without slowing, White slammed his vehicle into Lee's person and his patrol car. The impact propelled Lee some distance across the pavement causing mass trauma, resulting in death.

DISCUSSION

I. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT ERRED IN ACCEPTING AS RACE-NEUTRAL THE REASONS OFFERED BY THE STATE FOR STRIKING JURORS NOS. 3, 9, 20, AND 29?

¶ 4. White asserts that the circuit court violated Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), when it accepted the reasons offered by the prosecutors for striking African-American Jurors No. 3, 9, 20, and 29 to be race-neutral. The State argues that each of the reasons offered by the State for striking these jurors has been previously recognized as an acceptable race-neutral reason in our State's jurisprudence, and therefore, White's Batson objections were properly overruled. We are to give great deference to the circuit court when reviewing whether or not peremptory *1184 challenges were race-neutral. Manning v. State, 765 So.2d 516, 519(¶ 8) (Miss. 2000). "Such deference is necessary because finding that a striking party engaged in discrimination is largely a factual finding. . . . Indeed, we will not overrule a trial court on a Batson ruling unless the record indicates that the ruling was clearly erroneous or against the overwhelming weight of the evidence." Id.

¶ 5. Pursuant to the landmark case of Batson, a defendant may establish a prima facie case of purposeful racial discrimination in the State's use of peremptory challenges by showing: (1) that he is a member of a cognizable racial group, (2) that the prosecutor has exercised peremptory challenges toward the elimination of veniremen of his race, and (3) that the facts and circumstances infer that the prosecutor used his peremptory challenges for the purpose of striking minorities. See also Lockett v. State, 517 So.2d 1346, 1349 (Miss.1987). In Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352, 358-59, 111 S.Ct. 1859, 114 L.Ed.2d 395 (1991), the United States Supreme Court clarified the proper trial court procedure following a Batson objection as follows: (1) the defendant must make a prima facie showing that the prosecutor has exercised his peremptory challenges on the basis of race, (2) if the requisite showing has been made, the burden shifts to the prosecution to articulate race-neutral explanations for striking the jurors in question, and (3) the trial court has the duty of determining whether the defendant has carried his burden of proving purposeful discrimination. The process outlined in Hernandez has been adopted in Mississippi. See Walters v. State, 720 So.2d 856, 865(¶ 28) (Miss.1998); Thorson v. State, 721 So.2d 590, 593(¶ 2) (Miss.1998).

¶ 6. In the case at bar, the prosecution used ten of its twelve peremptory strikes to eliminate African-Americans from the venire. White raised Batson objections to the striking of Juror Nos. 3, 9, 20, and 29, and the circuit court then required the prosecutor to provide race-neutral reasons for striking each of these jurors. In response, the prosecutors articulated that Jurors No. 3 and 9 were struck because law enforcement officers present in the court room indicated to the prosecutors that Juror No. 3 had "a family full of drug dealers" and that Juror No. 9 "lived in a high crime area." Additionally, the prosecutors articulated that Juror No. 3 was struck because she had previously served as a juror on a criminal case that failed to return a death sentence, where the prosecution sought the death penalty. The prosecution further proffered the reason that Juror No. 20 was struck because he was a counselor at a mental health facility and Juror No. 29 was struck because of her demeanor. The prosecution asserted that Juror No. 29 was non-responsive and slept through much of voir dire.

¶ 7. Our case law has set out a non-exhaustive list of valid race-neutral reasons for the exercise of peremptory challenges, which includes "living in a `high crime' area, body language, demeanor, [distrust of a juror by the party exercising the strike], inconsistency between oral responses and the juror's card, criminal history of juror or relative, social work and other types of employment, and religious beliefs." Perry v. State, 949 So.2d at 767-68(¶ 7) (Miss.Ct.App.2006) (quoting Walker v. State, 815 So.2

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White v. State, 964 So. 2d 1181, 2007 WL 2473195 (Mich. Ct. App. 2007).

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