BACKDOORING BATSOM THE IMPROPER USE OF RACIAL MEMORY AND OTHER "PECULIAR" CHARACTERISTICS IN JUROR CHALLENGES.

In Batson v. Kentucky case, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the discriminatory use of peremptory challenges by a prosecutor to strike black venirepersons from the jury in a criminal case with an Afro-American defendant. Under the Batson test, once a defendant makes out a prima facie case of such use, the prosecutor must offer a race-neutral explanation for the strikes, which will be evaluated by the court. This test was intended to prevent discrimination from intruding into the judicial process. In subsequent cases, however, the Court has interpreted the phrase "race-neutral" to require only that the attorney's explanation for the strikes not explicitly refer to race or other protected status. This interpretation has effectively transformed this step of the Batson inquiry into a "say no evil, see no evil" test in which courts defer to any explanation, regardless of how unreasonable or implausible.