The Supreme Court today affirms the death sentence in People v. Baker for a 2004 rape and murder. The court’s unanimous opinion is by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye.
Among many other things, the court finds no merit in defendant’s Batson/Wheeler claim that the prosecution improperly peremptorily dismissed the only two remaining Black prospective jurors. Although observing that “the trial court certainly ‘could have done more to make a fuller record,’ ” the opinion says, “the trial court made a sincere and reasoned effort to evaluate the genuineness of the prosecutor’s stated reasons, and that substantial evidence supports its conclusion that the strikes were not discriminatory.”
Justice Goodwin Liu signs the court’s opinion, but also writes a brief concurrence to reiterate his view that “the better rule is to require the trial court to affirmatively demonstrate on the record that it has made a sincere and reasoned effort to evaluate the prosecutor’s explanations for a contested strike.” Justice Liu has frequently criticized the court’s Batson jurisprudence. (E.g., here.) In this particular case, however, he says, “even upon an independent review of the record, I would conclude that defendant has not shown by a preponderance of the evidence that the prosecutor’s reasons for striking [the two prospective jurors] were pretextual.”