People v. Smith
Annotate this CaseMultiple charges were brought against Bennett and Smith in connection with a 2013 altercation between two groups of teenagers outside of the Bayfair BART station in San Leandro, which escalated to the point where shots were fired and Seets, an innocent bystander, was killed. There are video recordings of the events. Bennett was additionally prosecuted for the attempted murder of Jordan, based on an unrelated incident that occurred two days before the BART shooting and involved the same gun. The court of appeal affirmed their convictions, rejecting an argument that the prosecutor improperly used three of his peremptory challenges to excuse potential jurors because they were Black, in violation of Batson v. Kentucky. The trial court considered at length the prosecutor’s reasons for challenging each of the three prospective jurors, concluded that all of the proffered reasons were valid and race-neutral, and expressly found the prosecutor credible and his justifications genuine. The court upheld jury instructions on “imperfect self defense” and that, to find Smith guilty of murder, he had to do something beyond merely exhibiting his firearm. The court remanded Bennett’s case for possible resentencing in light of an intervening change in the law related to firearm enhancements, Penal Code section 12022.53.
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