Opinion
February 14, 1995
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Tomei, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is reversed, on the law, and a new trial is ordered.
During jury selection, the prosecutor exercised peremptory challenges to strike two black panelists. The defense counsel raised a challenge under Batson v. Kentucky ( 476 U.S. 79), and the court directed the prosecutor to provide a race-neutral explanation for the peremptory challenges. The prosecutor failed to satisfy the People's burden of overcoming the presumption of discrimination found by the court (see also, People v. Blunt, 176 A.D.2d 741; People v. Suarez, 176 A.D.2d 210). Indeed, the prosecutor merely claimed that as a black individual she was very sensitive to the issue of racial discrimination. The prosecutor's testimony "amounted to little more than a denial of discriminatory purpose and a general assertion of good faith" (People v. Bozella, 161 A.D.2d 775, 776). Miller, J.P., O'Brien, Santucci and Florio, JJ., concur.