P. v. Smith CA1/4
This criminal prosecution is the result of multiple charges brought against two co-defendants—Jabrie Bennett and Andre Smith (collectively, appellants)—in connection with a January 2013 altercation between two groups of teenagers outside of the Bayfair BART station in San Leandro, which escalated to the point where shots were fired and Kenneth Seets, an innocent bystander, was killed. Bennett was additionally prosecuted for the attempted murder of Donnell Jordan, based on an unrelated incident that occurred two days prior to the BART shooting and involved the same gun. Both Bennett and Smith raise numerous claims of error on appeal. Together, they assert that the prosecutor improperly used three of his peremptory challenges to excuse potential jurors because they were Black, in violation of Batson v. Kentucky (1986) 476 U.S. 79 (Batson) and People v. Wheeler (1978) 22 Cal.3d 258 (Wheeler), overruled in part by Johnson v. California (2005) 545 U.S. 162, 165.
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