Prosecutors strike all blacks from jury panel

Prosecutors discriminated in at least one instance when they struck all the blacks from a  panel of jurors set to try an  African-American on drug charges, an appeals court said Tuesday.

The Indiana Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for Edward Killebrew, finding a trial judge erred in overruling the defense attorney’s objections.

“Although there is no indication that Marion County prosecutors systematically exclude minorities from juries, courts must be vigilant in ensuring that the jury selection process in criminal cases is free from any hint of bias,” Judge Michael P.
Barnes wrote in the 2-1 ruling in which Judge Elaine Brown concurred.

A spokesperson for the Marion County prosecutors office did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Killebrew’s attorney argued that prosecutors discriminated even though they gave other reasons for not allowing the five jurors to serve in his August 2009 trial on charges including cocaine dealing and possession. Killebrew, 23, was convicted and currently is an inmate at the state prison at Branchville. He is due for release in 2014.

In at least one instance, the judges said, the reason given for striking a black from the panel applied equally to two white jurors who were allowed to serve.

In that case, prosecutors struck a black juror referred to by the initials L.S. after he overstated their burden of proof by saying they would have to prove their case “beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

Prosecutors didn’t object to two white people who gave similar answers, one saying Killebrew’s guilt would have to be proved so that “there is no  possible doubt” and another saying he “would have to be 100 percent sure that they were guilty.”

“We conclude Killebrew has established that the peremptory strike of L.S. was the result of purposeful discrimination,” Barnes wrote.

Judge Paul D. Mathias dissented, saying the reasons given for striking the jurors were not implausible and there was no conclusive proof prosecutors had discriminated.
“I do not deny that this is a close case,” he acknowledged.