Riggins v. State
Riggins v. State
Opinion of the Court
On this appeal from convictions for possession with intent to sell cocaine, resisting an officer with violence, battery on a law enforcement officer, escape and petit theft, the only points raised concern jury selection. We affirm.
The defendant’s first contention concerns two jurors as to whom state peremptory challenges were upheld by the trial court after a Batson-Neil objection. The state’s proffered race-neutral reason
The other point concerns two other jurors who were excused by the court for cause on the state’s motion. Even assuming that the defendant can be heard to raise the issue, Dunaway v. State, 90 Fla. 142, 143, 105 So. 816, 816 (1925) (“As a matter of right, defendant was entitled to no particular jury or jurors to try his case. He was entitled to a fair and impartial jury, and it is not claimed or intimated that the jury finally selected and sworn and by whom defendant was tried was not all that the law required.”); Chavers v. State, 827 So.2d 279 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002), review denied, 842 So.2d 843 (Fla. 2003); O’Quendo v. State, 823 So.2d 834 (Fla. 5th DCA 2002) (citing Piccott v. State, 116 So.2d 626, 627 (Fla. 1959), appeal dismissed and cert. denied, 364 U.S. 293, 81 S.Ct. 106, 5 L.Ed.2d 83 (1960)), the record shows that each was justifiably excused for cause: one of the jurors because he doubted his ability to be fair as a result of his having been unjustifiably accused by the police in the past, see Lebron v. State, 799 So.2d 997, 1014-15 (Fla. 2001) (“The State, as well as the defendant, is entitled to an impartial jury.”) (citing Peteet v. State, 631 S.W.2d 816, 817 (Tex.App. 1982)), cert. denied, 535 U.S. 1036, 122 S.Ct. 1794, 152 L.Ed.2d 652 (2002); Still v. State, 917 So.2d 250 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005); Ruland v. State, 614 So.2d 537, 538 (Fla. 3d DCA 1993), review denied, 626 So.2d 207 (Fla. 1993), and the other because she was familiar with the defendant himself. See Busby v. State, 894 So.2d 88 (Fla. 2004), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 125 S.Ct. 2976, 162 L.Ed.2d 906 (2005); Moore v. State, 939 So.2d 1116 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006); Henry v. State, 586 So.2d 1335 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991).
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.