Powers v. Ohio

499 U.S. 400 (1991)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

The Civil Rights Act of 1875 made it a criminal offense to exclude persons from jury service on account of their race. D, a white man, was indicted on two counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted aggravated murder. Each count also included a separate allegation that D had a firearm while committing the offense. D pleaded not guilty and invoked his right to a jury trial. During jury selection, D objected when the prosecutor exercised his first peremptory challenge to remove a black venire person. D requested the trial court to compel the prosecutor to explain, on the record, his reasons for excluding a black person. The trial court denied the request and excused the juror. The State (P) proceeded to use nine more peremptory challenges, six of which removed black venirepersons from the jury. Each time the prosecution challenged a black prospective juror, D renewed his objections, citing Batson v. Kentucky. D's objections were overruled. The record does not indicate that race was somehow implicated in the crime or the trial; nor does it reveal whether any black persons sat on D's petit jury or if any of the nine jurors P excused by peremptory challenges were black persons. D was convicted on counts of murder, aggravated murder, and attempted aggravated murder, each with the firearm specifications. D appealed contending the prosecutor's discriminatory use of peremptories violated the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of a fair cross section in his petit jury, the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, and Article I, §§ 10 and 16, of the Ohio Constitution. The Court of Appeals affirmed and the Supreme Court of Ohio dismissed the appeal as it presented no substantial constitutional question. D appealed. The Supreme Court decided Holland v. Illinois which held the Sixth Amendment did not restrict the exclusion of a racial group at the peremptory challenge stage. The Supreme Court granted certiorari limited to the question of whether, based on the Equal Protection Clause, a white defendant may object to the prosecution's peremptory challenges of black venirepersons.