Summary
holding that the fairer approach is to dismiss the entire panel and begin jury selection anew because "[t]o ask jurors who have been improperly excluded from a jury because of their race to then return to the jury to remain unaffected by that recent discrimination, and to render an impartial verdict without prejudice toward either the State or the defendant, would be to ask them to discharge a duty which would require near superhuman effort and which would be extremely difficult for a person possessed of any sensitivity whatsoever to carry out successfully"
Summary of this case from Jones v. StateOpinion
No. 528A93 — Bladen
Filed 10 February 1995
Appeal by defendant pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-30(2) from the decision of a divided panel of the Court of Appeals, 112 N.C. App. 390, 436 S.E.2d 163 (1993), finding no error in defendant's trial resulting in a verdict of guilty of first-degree rape and a judgment of life imprisonment entered by Johnson (E. Lynn), J., on 10 June 1992 in Superior Court, Bladen County. Heard in the Supreme Court 14 September 1994.
Michael F. Easley, Attorney General, by William N. Farrell, Jr., Senior Deputy Attorney General, for the State.
Thomas K. Maher for defendant-appellant.
Tharrington, Smith Hargrove, by Roger W. Smith, for North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, amicus curiae.
AFFIRMED.
Justices LAKE and ORR did not participate in the consideration or decision of this case.