[Published Opinion] The Court of Appeal found that the Batson/Wheeler motion involving a prospective juror who expressed support for Black Lives Matter was improperly denied. In so holding, the Court found that the record does not support the trial court’s view that the juror had “a myriad of anti-prosecution issues” justifying a peremptory challenge, “given the prosecutor’s inappropriate questioning about Black Lives Matter, the absence of any clear and legitimate nondiscriminatory reasons for striking the juror, and the evidence of at least some historical discrimination by the prosecutor and other district attorneys in her office. . . .” The Court also found that insufficient evidence supported the conclusion that the peremptory challenge of the juror was not motivated by discriminatory intent (third-stage ruling).
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