Davis v. State
Davis v. State
Opinion of the Court
In this appeal appellant challenges the state’s use of peremptory challenges. The trial court overruled appellant’s objections at trial. We affirm. That a venireperson has a relative who has been charged with a crime is a race-neutral reason for exercising a peremptory challenge. See Fotopoulos v. State, 608 So.2d 784 (Fla. 1992). The trial court’s assessment of the credibility of the state’s explanation for the strike should be “affirmed on appeal unless clearly erroneous.” Melbourne v. State, 679 So.2d 759, 764-65 (Fla. 1996); King v. Byrd, 716 So.2d 831, 833-34 (Fla. 4th DCA 1998). Although the state accepted venireperson Sapia as a juror despite the fact that her husband had been arrested, the prosecutor explained that he had not stricken the juror because of her prior jury experience and his desire to seat a jury without calling to the jury pool for additional jurors. To seat a jury
AFFIRMED.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.