U.S. v. Hunter

In prosecution on armed robbery charges, Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendants’ Batson challenge on govt.’s use of peremptory challenge on black juror, where: (1) govt. explained that it used said challenge because of juror’s negative experience with criminal justice system; and (2) govt. had eventually struck similarly-situated white jurors who had negative experiences with criminal justice system. While defendant argued that Dist. Ct. had impermissibly allowed parties to re-examine jurors after govt. had articulated reason for excluding said juror so as to give govt. opportunity to justify articulation by subsequently using challenges on white jurors, Dist. Ct. could permissibly allow instant “re-do” of jury panel, where Clerk’s office had failed to provide parties with all relevant information about said jurors before jury selection. Also, Dist. Ct. did not err in preventing defendants from cross-examining govt. witnesses with respect to specific mandatory minimum sentences they were avoiding by cooperating with govt., since defendants had been allowed to establish that said witnesses had received substantial reduction in their imprisonment.