Case Summaries – N.C. Court of Appeals (Oct. 20, 2020)

This post summarizes opinions issued by the Court of Appeals of North Carolina on October 20, 2020. (1) The trial court did not make a record adequately addressing its consideration of the totality of the circumstances in ruling on the defendant’s Batson claim. (2) The trial court erred by assessing costs in each of four judgments against the defendant in violation of State v. Rieger.  State v. Alexander, ___ N.C. App. ___, ___ S.E.2d ___ (Oct. 20, 2020). (1) The defendant, on trial for multiple drug charges, challenged the prosecutor’s peremptory strike of the only Black juror in the venire under Batson v. Kentucky. The trial court overruled the defendant’s objection, finding that although the “100 percent rejection rate of African American jurors” established a prima facie showing of discrimination, the State gave credible race-neutral reasons for striking the prospective juror, and the defendant therefore did not prove purposeful discrimination. The defendant appealed, arguing that the trial court erred in denying his Batson challenge or, in the alternative, failed to make adequate findings of fact as required by State v. Hobbs, 374 N.C. 345 (2020). The Court of Appeals rejected the State’s argument that the defendant had not preserved the issue because the record did not disclose direct evidence of the race of the challenged juror and the jury selection process was not recorded. The Court held that the record sufficed to permit appellate review when the record of the Batson hearing included express statements, undisputed by the State, that the [...]