The People, Plaintiff and Respondent v. Calvin Dion Chism, Defendant — Liu, J., Concurring in Part and Dissenting…

Summary

Justice Liu concurred in affirming the defendant’s convictions but dissented from affirming the death penalty, concluding that the prosecutor’s peremptory strike of Black juror J.S. was substantially motivated by discriminatory intent. Liu reasoned that the prosecutor’s explanations concerning supervisory experience and stress tolerance were unsupported by the record and inconsistent with the treatment of comparable white jurors. Justice Kennard, concurring in part and dissenting in part, would also have upheld the convictions and death sentence but would have rejected use of the juvenile adjudication to double the robbery sentence.