Mesamours v. State
The Third DCA affirmed a conviction for resisting an officer without violence, rejecting a Melbourne/Batson challenge to the State's peremptory strike of an African American juror, a sufficiency challenge regarding proof of resisting the specific named officers, and a claim to a twelve-person jury. On the strike issue, the court held that even though the State's initial race-neutral reason (juror's stated skepticism of police credibility) lacked contemporaneous record verification, and a second reason (prior jury service) applied equally to an unchallenged white juror, the trial court's genuineness finding was not clearly erroneous because the record ultimately supported the State's first proffered reason.
Key facts
- Defendant was charged with resisting an officer without violence after accelerating his vehicle to flee when officers activated emergency lights during a traffic stop.
- At trial, the State exercised a peremptory strike against an African American juror, initially stating the juror's skepticism of police credibility as the reason, then offering prior jury service as an alternative reason.
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Why it matters
This opinion offers useful guidance for practitioners litigating Melbourne/Batson challenges by clarifying that a strike is not automatically pretextual merely because one proffered reason applied equally to a… — full analysis with a trial
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