Criminal Procedure

Final Essay

September 21, 2010

The United States Government has an important role, not only to protect society from criminals, but also to punish offenders. Criminals that are caught for a crime all have to go through the same legal processes. The United States Government in many cases has upheld what other courts have said, or verdicts rendered. However, when racial discrimination is called into question, the United States Government has little patience.

In the case of Batson v Kentucky, the courts were looking back at a portion of Swain v Alabama. The courts were strongly looking the racial discrimination that took place during the jury selection on the prosecution’s side. The State used their peremptory challenges to exclude prospective jurors based on their race. Exclusion based on race is considered to be a violation of the Equal Protection Clause. What the defense in this case was trying to prove, was that the prosecution purposefully excluded members from the jury that were of his own race. The courts did agree that it was not acceptable for the prosecuting attorney to use their peremptory challenges to exclude jurors specifically based on race. (Roberson, 2007)

Both Justice Powell and Justice Marshal agreed that the use of peremptory challenges to exclude potential witnesses based on their race should not be condoned by courts and should not be used. The mere fact that this was done violates the Equal Protection Clause that protects potential jurors from being eliminated based on their race, also that the thoughts that black jurors are unable to render a verdict against a black defendant (Roberson, 2007). It was also stated that the defendant should not be allowed to attack the discrimination but they should be able to establish a case against the state but only if there was sufficient evidence to support the accusations. One consideration that was mentioned as a way to eliminate the potential of racial discrimination was to...