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01/30/2009 "See News Release 004 for any Concurrences and/or Dissents."

SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA

No. 08-K-1194 STATE OF LOUISIANA v. SHAWN DRAKE

On Writ of Certiorari to the First Circuit Court of Appeal

PER CURIAM: Granted. The decision of the court of appeal is reversed, and this case is remanded to the district court for purposes of providing the state with an opportunity to offer race-neutral reasons for the exercise of eight of the state's peremptory challenges to exclude African-American jurors from the panel selected to try defendant's case and for a ruling by the trial court on the question of whether race played a role in the selection of defendant's jury. The trial court found that defendant had failed to satisfy the first step in the three-part test of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed. 69 (1986) because he did not make a prima facie showing of discriminatory purpose. However, the Supreme Court "did not intend the first step to be so onerous that a defendant would have to persuade the judge

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Louisiana Law