Criminal Law : Resisting Arrest – Sufficiency Of Evidence – Batson Challenge

Stephanie Maniscalco//June 24, 2016

(1)Where a defendant challenged his conviction for a felony count of resisting arrest, the state did not present evidence that the officer contemplated arresting the defendant for a felony, and the officer may have planned to arrest the defendant for a misdemeanor, so the conviction for felony resisting arrest is reversed and remanded and a judgment of conviction entered for a misdemeanor count since the jury found each element in support.

(2)Where a defendant in a felony resisting arrest case argued that the trial court should have granted his Batson motion, the defendant failed to show that the state’s race-neutral explanation for striking the juror because she was a corrections officer was pretextual.

Judgment is reversed and remanded.

State v. Burnett (MLW No. 69329/Case No. ED102459 – 16 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, Odenwald, J.) Appealed from circuit court, St. Louis City, Grady, J. (Gwenda Renee Robinson for appellant) (Christ Koster and Mary H. Moore for respondent).

Read the full text of this opinion. (PDF)