California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Sandhu, C079402 (Cal. App. 2019):
"Here, the court found no prima facie case, but only after the prosecutor had stated her reasons for the challenges. In this situation, 'we infer an "implied prima facie finding" of discrimination and proceed directly to review of the ultimate question of purposeful discrimination.' " (People v. Hardy (2018) 5 Cal.5th 56, 76.)
"At the third stage, the genuineness of the justification offered, not its objective reasonableness, is decisive. [Citations.] '[T]he issue comes down to whether the trial court finds the prosecutor's race-neutral explanations to be credible. Credibility can be measured by, among other factors, the prosecutor's demeanor; by how reasonable, or how improbable, the explanations are; and by whether the proffered rationale has some basis in accepted trial strategy.' [Citations.] Because the trial court's credibility determination may rest in part on contemporaneous observations unavailable to the appellate court, we review that determination ' " 'with great restraint' " ' and will accord it deference '[s]o long as the trial court makes a sincere and reasoned effort to evaluate the nondiscriminatory justifications offered,' affirming when substantial evidence supports the ruling." (People v. Armstrong, supra, 6 Cal.5th at pp. 767-768.)
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