Tuesday, March 30, 2004

Dotson fights off Batson challenge

This article from the Coalfield Progress reports that in an ongoing murder trial, the Wise County Circuit Court denied a defense lawyer's motion claiming that the use by the Commonwealth's attorney of his first peremptory challenge to strike the only black person from the jury pool was unconstitutional racial discrimination. The article quotes Judge Stump as saying: "It is unusual to have African-Americans on local jury panels."

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