A divided Supreme Court today upholds the death sentence in People v. Nadey for a 1996 murder and unlawful sodomy in Alameda.

The disagreement is mainly about a Batson/Wheeler issue. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Batson decision and the California Supreme Court’s Wheeler decision establish that it’s unconstitutional for an attorney to racially discriminate in peremptorily challenging prospective jurors.

The prosecution used peremptory challenges to excuse five Black women from the jury. The trial court found a prima facie case of discrimination, but ruled the prosecution’s stated reasons for the strikes were “genuine and facially neutral.”

The court’s opinion by Justice Carol Corrigan gives deference to the trial court’s acceptance of the prosecution’s reasons, even though the judge didn’t justify their ruling on the record. The majority states, “we have repeatedly explained that trial courts are ‘ “ ‘not required to make specific or detailed comments for the record to justify every instance’ ” ’ in which they have accepted a prosecutor’s race-neutral reasons for a strike as genuine.”

Justice Goodwin Liu dissents, joined by Justice Kelli Evans. He claims that the majority “improperly defers to the trial court’s rulings” because there is no “indication in the record that [the trial court] ‘made a “sincere and reasoned effort to evaluate the nondiscriminatory justifications offered.” ’ ”