Cole Douglas Ross v. Commonwealth of Kentucky

Summary

The court reversed Ross’s murder and arson convictions because the Commonwealth failed to provide sufficiently clear and specific gender-neutral explanations for two challenged peremptory strikes, and the resulting Batson violation was structural. The court upheld, for purposes of possible retrial, the admission of the photographs and television and the limitation on discovery of the witness’s psychotherapy records. The court did not reach the cumulative-error claim because reversal was required on the jury-selection issue.