Walker v. State
Walker v. State
Opinion of the Court
Volanta Walker was indicted for rape. He was tried before a jury, which found him guilty of the charge. The trial court imposed a twenty-year sentence, ordering Walker to serve thirteen years in confinement and seven years on probation. Walker appeals, arguing that there is insufficient evidence to support the conviction and that the trial court erred in denying his challenge to the state’s striking of two African-American jurors. The arguments are without merit, and we thus affirm Walker’s conviction.
Viewed in favor of the verdict, the evidence in the instant case shows that the victim and Walker had a relationship for several years and had a child together. After the victim attempted to end their romantic relationship, Walker twice assaulted the victim by hitting, biting and threatening to kill her.
A week after the second incidence of physical abuse, Walker came to the victim’s home and began banging on the window and door. The victim allowed Walker to come into the house. According to the victim’s testimony, Walker took her upstairs, pushed her to the floor, punched her and hit her face with a telephone. He threw her onto the bed and said that since she was having sex with someone else then he was going to have sex with her, too. She told him no, but Walker unbuttoned her pants and forced his penis into her vagina. Before leaving the victim’s home, Walker threatened to kill the victim and her family if she took out a warrant against him.
After Walker left, the victim called her mother and the police. She was taken to a hospital where she was examined. The doctor who examined the victim testified that she had a bloodied eye, bruising under the eye, a swollen nose and lacerations to her neck. He took vaginal cervical smears and swabs of the victim, and later testing by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation revealed the presence of semen on the smears and Walker’s DNA on the swabs.
A person commits the offense of rape when he has carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.
2. Walker contends that the trial court erred in rejecting his
Here, the trial court found that Walker had not made out a prima facie showing of racial discrimination, but it nevertheless allowed the state to give its reasons for striking the two prospective jurors. “Pretermitting the propriety of the trial court’s ruling on the existence of a prima facie case, we find no error in the trial court’s determination that the explanations articulated by the State were sufficient to rebut a prima facie case of discrimination under Batson”
As to the first dismissed juror challenged by Walker, the state gave the race-neutral explanation that it struck him because he had previously been falsely accused of rape.
“[Ajlthough striking a particular juror in order to get to other jurors further down the list appears to be a race-neutral explanation, only in the context of application can we determine whether such an explanation is in fact racially-neutral.”
Inasmuch as Walker did not make any counter-showing to the state’s race-neutral explanations, he did not carry his burden of
Judgment affirmed.
Jackson v. State, 257 Ga. App. 817 (1) (572 SE2d 360) (2002).
OCGA § 16-6-1 (a)(1).
OCGA § 16-6-1 (a).
See Quinn v. State, 213 Ga. App. 185, 186 (444 SE2d 132) (1994).
476 U. S. 79 (106 SC 1712, 90 LE2d 69) (1986).
Daniels v. State, 276 Ga. 632, 633-634 (3) (580 SE2d 221) (2003).
Jenkins v. State, 269 Ga. 282, 290 (11) (498 SE2d 502) (1998).
Daniels, supra at 634 (3); Darnell v. State, 257 Ga. App. 555, 557 (4) (571 SE2d 547) (2002).
(Citation and punctuation omitted.) Evans v. State, 217 Ga. App. 589 (1) (458 SE2d 665) (1995).
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.