California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Howard, 1 Cal.4th 1132, 5 Cal.Rptr.2d 268, 824 P.2d 1315 (Cal. 1992):
Unlike the majority, however, I conclude that defendant did establish a prima facie case, or a strong likelihood, that during jury selection impermissible group bias was the basis for the prosecutor's use of peremptory challenges to remove the only two African-American jurors. Once defendant made such a showing, the burden shifted to the prosecutor to show that group bias did not form the basis for the jurors' removal. (People v. Wheeler (1978) 22 Cal.3d 258, 281, 148 Cal.Rptr. 890, 583 P.2d 748.) The prosecutor, however, discharged this burden when he gave plausible reasons for the jurors' exclusion, without any challenge or disagreement by the defense. Thus, there was no reversible error.
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