[Download] "Dorsey V. State" by Supreme Court of Florida # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Dorsey V. State
- Author : Supreme Court of Florida
- Release Date : January 18, 2003
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 72 KB
Description
The issue we address in this case is a narrow one: whether a party's observation of a juror's nonverbal behavior may constitute a genuine, race-neutral reason for a peremptory challenge when the purported behavior is challenged by the opposing party and was neither observed by the trial court nor otherwise supported by the record. In the case before us, Dorsey v. State, 806 So. 2d 559 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002), the Third District answered this question in the affirmative, concluding that our holding in Melbourne v. State, 679 So. 2d 759 (Fla. 1996), that the focus in ruling on a challenged strike is the genuineness of the explanation, implicitly overruled Wright v. State, 586 So. 2d 1024 (Fla. 1991), in which this Court disapproved of peremptory challenges based on a juror's bare looks and gestures that were not observed by the trial judge and confirmed by the judge on the record. *fn1 We must determine whether this Court's holding in Wright remains valid in light of the Court's subsequent decision in Melbourne. *fn2 Because we conclude that Melbourne did not overrule the core holding in Wright that a reason for a challenge based on nonverbal communication must have record support, we quash the Third District's decision to the contrary.