United States v. Rutledge, No. 10-2734 (7th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseAt jury selection in a criminal trial, the prosecutor used peremptory challenges to strike the only two African-American members in the venire. The defendant was convicted. The Seventh Circuit remanded for findings under the third step in the analysis under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986): the prosecutor's credibility in offering a race-neutral reason for the strike (step two). The district court must make an independent credibility determination concerning the prosecutor's race-neutral reason that one juror "appeared agitated and also frustrated" throughout voir dire. A judge may consider a variety of factors in making a credibility determination, but may not assume that a prosecutor of the same race as a juror would not engage in discrimination against that juror simply because of their shared race.
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