IN THE
TENTH COURT OF APPEALS
No. 10-08-00413-CR
EMMITT DOUGLAS CARROLL,
Appellant
v.
THE STATE OF TEXAS,
Appellee
From the 361st District Court
Brazos County, Texas
Trial Court No. 07-05908-CRF-361
MEMORANDUM OPINION
A jury found Appellant Emmitt Douglas Carroll guilty of the offense of
aggravated robbery. The trial court assessed his punishment at fifty-eight years’
imprisonment. In two issues, Carroll appeals. We will affirm.
BACKGROUND
On September 17, 2007, at about 2:00 a.m., Patricia Garcia took her husband to
work and then returned to her apartment complex in Bryan, Texas. She parked her
vehicle in the parking lot, got out, and opened the back door of the vehicle to get her
two-year-old daughter out of the backseat. At that time, she heard a rustling in the
bushes, someone say “go, go, go,” and then a gun cocking. She then saw a man with a
silver gun coming out of the darkness toward her. He was wearing a light-colored shirt
that looked like an undershirt, baggy blue jeans or blue jean shorts, white tennis shoes,
and a red bandana around his neck to cover his face. Once the man was standing in
front of her, he said, “I don’t want to hear nothing.” At that point, Garcia’s daughter
saw the man and said, “No.” The man then “kind of backed away a little.” He asked
Garcia for her purse. Garcia pulled the purse out from under the seat, and the man took
it out of her hands. He also asked for her phone. She replied that it was in the purse.
He looked inside the purse and then started to leave.
By about 2:15 or 2:18 a.m., Garcia got back inside of her apartment and sent a
message to her husband on the computer. When she spoke to the police, she described
the man who robbed her as a young, very clean-cut African-American man who was
about five feet two inches tall and weighed about 150 pounds. She also stated that she
is not very good at heights and weights. At trial, she identified Carroll as the man who
had robbed her.
Also in the early morning hours of September 17, 2007, Erik Scheets returned to
his apartment complex in College Station, Texas. Between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m., he pulled
into a parking spot and saw three African-American men standing about twenty to
thirty feet away. When he got out of his car, the men were walking toward him.
Scheets began walking toward his apartment, greeted the men, and continued walking
past them. But just after Scheets passed by the men, he heard the sound of a gun
Carroll v. State Page 2
cocking, and one of the men yelled for him to stop. Scheets stopped and turned around.
The men were standing “kind of in a triangle, two behind one.” The man directly in
front of him was holding a small silver semi-automatic handgun.
The man with the gun told Scheets to give them his wallet and cell phone.
Scheets complied, and the man looked through the wallet. Meanwhile, the other two
men went through Scheets’s car and took a laptop, an ipod, and several other things
from the trunk. When the man with the gun discovered that Scheets did not have any
money in his wallet, he told Scheets to get back into his car so that he could go get the
man some money. Scheets and the man with the gun then got into the car, and the man
told Scheets to drive to the nearest ATM.
As they were leaving the parking lot, a police car passed them, and the man told
Scheets not to try anything and pressed the gun into Scheets’s ribs. Once at the ATM,
Scheets tried several times to get money out of the machine but was unsuccessful
because he did not have much money in his account. The man eventually told Scheets
to go back to his apartment. Once Scheets returned to the apartment complex where the
other two men were waiting, the man with the gun told Scheets that because he could
not give him any money, the three men were going to go with Scheets to his apartment
and “get their money’s worth.”
After Scheets unlocked the door to his apartment, the men told him to sit on the
couch. The man with the gun handed it to one of the other men, who watched Scheets
while the other two men went through the different rooms of the apartment. At some
point, the two men returned to the living room. The man who had originally held the
Carroll v. State Page 3
gun took the gun back, held it to Scheets’s head, and asked Scheets if they had gotten
everything of value. They then told Scheets not to call the police and not to try and
leave because they would be waiting. They then left.
Several minutes later, Scheets left through the sliding glass door because the men
had taken his cell phone, and he was unable to call the police. Scheets flagged down a
passing motorist who helped him. Scheets described to the police that the man holding
the gun was approximately six feet tall, had a muscular build, and was wearing a white
tank top and baggy gray shorts; his hair was cut short, and he was wearing a “do-rag”
on his head. The man who watched him while they were in the apartment had a
slender build and was wearing plaid shorts. Scheets testified that he also described the
third man as wearing a dark shirt, a cross necklace, and a red bandana.
Upon hearing of the robbery, a cashier at a Valero gas station on the same street
as Scheets’s apartment complex informed a friend, who then told the police, that she
had seen three African-American men in the store around 11:30 p.m. on the same night
as the robbery. They had made her nervous because they were acting “crazy,”
laughing, cutting up, and “smelled funny.” She recognized one of the men as Damian,
a regular customer from another store where she had previously worked, and one of the
other men identified himself as “AJ” or “EJ.” The police recovered the in-store video
from that night.
Detective Patrick Massey of the College Station Police Department testified that
he reviewed the video from the store, and the appearances of the three men in the video
were consistent with the descriptions that Scheets had given him on the night of the
Carroll v. State Page 4
robbery. In particular, one of the men who had robbed Scheets wore a red bandana,
and one of the men on the video had a red bandana tucked away in his pocket.
Detective Massey thus contacted Scheets to review the video. After reviewing the
video, Scheets identified the three men as those who had robbed him. The man in the
video who identified himself as “EJ” is Carroll. The other two individuals are Damian
Flowers and Milton McCloud. At trial, Scheets identified Carroll as the man that held
the gun, made him drive to the ATM, and then took him back to his apartment.
Carroll was convicted of the aggravated robbery of Scheets.
ADMISSION OF EXTRANEOUS OFFENSE
In his first issue, Carroll contends that the trial court abused its discretion by
admitting the extraneous offense evidence of the Garcia robbery under the identity
exception of Rule 404(b) of the Texas Rules of Evidence. We will uphold the decision of
the trial court concerning the admissibility of the evidence unless the ruling rests
outside the zone of reasonable disagreement. See Martin v. State, 173 S.W.3d 463, 467
(Tex. Crim. App. 2005).
In Segundo v. State, 270 S.W.3d 79 (Tex. Crim. App. 2008), the Court of Criminal
Appeals stated:
The general rule is that the defendant is to be tried only for the
offense charged, not for any other crimes or for being a criminal generally.
However, evidence of extraneous acts of misconduct may be admissible if
(1) the uncharged act is relevant to a material issue in the case, and (2) the
probative value of that evidence is not significantly outweighed by its
prejudicial effect. Because the propensity to commit crimes is not a
material fact in a criminal case, Rule 404(b) explicitly prohibits the
admission of uncharged acts to prove conduct in conformity with a bad
character.
Carroll v. State Page 5
One of the main rationales for admitting extraneous-offense
evidence is to prove the identity of the offender. Here, the theory of
relevancy is usually that of modus operandi in which the pattern and
characteristics of the charged crime and the uncharged misconduct are so
distinctively similar that they constitute a “signature.” Usually, it is the
accretion of small, sometimes individually insignificant, details that marks
each crime as the handiwork or modus operandi of a single individual. No
rigid rules dictate what constitutes sufficient similarities; rather, the
common characteristics may be proximity in time and place, mode of
commission of the crimes, the person’s dress, or any other elements which
mark both crimes as having been committed by the same person. But if
the similarities are “generic,” i.e., typical to this type of crime, they will not
constitute a “signature” crime. Sometimes, however, the “signature” is
one unique characteristic. For example, suppose that three bank robberies
are committed over a four-year period in different cities in which the
robber used an antique silver crossbow. This scenario is so unusual that it
is highly likely that each robbery was committed by the same person
using the same antique silver crossbow. This is “the mark of Zorro” mode
of proving identity; it is a remarkably unusual fact, in which a single
detail suffices to establish identity.
Id. at 71 (footnotes and citations omitted).
In this case, the trial court allowed the State to present extraneous offense
evidence of the Garcia robbery only for the purpose of determining the identity of the
offender. Although Carroll does not dispute that he raised the issue of identity at trial,
he argues that the trial court’s admission of the extraneous offense evidence was error
because the pattern and characteristics of the charged crime and the uncharged conduct
were not significantly similar such that they constituted a “signature.” We disagree.
The extraneous offense presented by the State was committed in close proximity
to the time and place of the charged offense and by a common mode of commission. See
Dickson v. State, 246 S.W.3d 733, 742 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2007, pet. ref’d)
(“[T]he Court of Criminal Appeals has held that extraneous offenses may be sufficiently
Carroll v. State Page 6
similar to prove identity where there is either proximity in time and place or a common
mode of committing the offense.”) (citing Ransom v. State, 503 S.W.2d 810, 813 (Tex.
Crim. App. 1974)). Both robberies were committed in the Bryan/College Station area
within an hour of each other on the morning of September 17, 2007. In both robberies, a
clean-cut African-American male approached the victims on foot just after they had
exited their vehicles in the parking lots of their respective apartment complexes. Both
victims heard the sound of a gun cocking just before they saw a man with a silver gun.
Both victims saw a red bandana. In both robberies, the man with the gun immediately
asked for the victims’ purse/wallet and also took the victims’ cell phones. Finally, both
victims identified Carroll as the man that held the gun on them and robbed them.
Carroll argues that although there were some similarities between the charged
offense and the extraneous offense, the incidents were also dissimilar. For instance,
Carroll states that the Garcia robbery involved only one black male while the Scheets
robbery involved three black males. But Garcia testified that she heard a rustling in the
bushes and someone say “go, go, go,” just before the man approached her with a gun.
This indicates that more than one person was involved in her robbery as well.
Furthermore, some dissimilarities between the charged crime and the extraneous
offense do not automatically make the extraneous offense inadmissible. Dickson, 246
S.W.3d at 743; see Ransom, 503 S.W.2d at 813-14. We conclude that the trial court did not
abuse its discretion in finding that the offenses were sufficiently similar such that
evidence of the extraneous offense was admissible to prove the issue of identity.
Carroll v. State Page 7
In his first issue, Carroll also argues that even if the trial court did not err in
admitting the extraneous-offense testimony under Rule 404(b), the evidence should
have been excluded under Rule 403 because the prejudicial effect of the evidence
significantly outweighed its probative value. Under Rule 403, otherwise relevant
evidence “may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the
danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by
considerations of undue delay, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence.” TEX.
R. EVID. 403.
In its seminal decision in Montgomery v. State, the Court of Criminal
Appeals identified four non-exclusive factors to be considered in
determining whether evidence should be excluded under Rule 403. 810
S.W.2d 372, 389-90 (Tex. Crim. App. 1991) (op. on reh’g). Those factors
were: (1) the probative value of the evidence; (2) the potential to impress
the jury in some irrational, yet indelible way; (3) the time needed to
develop the evidence; and, (4) the proponent’s need for the evidence. See
id. (citing 22 CHARLES A. WRIGHT & KENNETH W. GRAHAM, FEDERAL
PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE § 5250, at 545-51 (1978); EDWARD J.
IMWINKELRIED, UNCHARGED MISCONDUCT EVIDENCE §§ 2:12, 8:03, 8:07
(1984)); accord Prible v. State, 175 S.W.3d 724, 733 (Tex. Crim. App. 2005).
More recently, the Court has looked to the language of Rule 403
and restated the pertinent factors.
[A] trial court, when undertaking a Rule 403 analysis, must balance
(1) the inherent probative force of the proffered evidence along
with (2) the proponent’s need for that evidence against (3) any
tendency of the evidence to suggest decision on an improper basis,
(4) any tendency of the evidence to confuse or distract the jury from
the main issues, (5) any tendency of the evidence to be given undue
weight by a jury that has not been equipped to evaluate the
probative force of the evidence, and (6) the likelihood that
presentation of the evidence will consume an inordinate amount of
time or merely repeat evidence already admitted. Of course, these
factors may well blend together in practice.
Carroll v. State Page 8
Gigliobianco v. State, 210 S.W.3d 637, 641-42 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006)
(footnotes omitted); accord Subirias v. State, 278 S.W.3d 406, 408 (Tex.
App.—San Antonio 2008, pet. ref’d); Brock v. State, 275 S.W.3d 586, 590
(Tex. App.—Amarillo 2008, pet. ref’d); Stafford v. State, 248 S.W.3d 400,
411-12 (Tex. App.—Beaumont 2008, pet. ref’d); but see De La Paz [v. State],
279 S.W.3d [336, 349 (Tex. Crim. App. 2009)] (applying Montgomery
factors).
Newton v. State, 301 S.W.3d 315, 319 (Tex. App.—Waco 2009, pet. ref’d) (footnote
omitted).
Probative force of the evidence: As discussed above, the extraneous-offense
evidence of the Garcia robbery is probative because it assists the jury in determining the
identity of the offender in the charged offense. This factor weighs in favor of
admissibility.
Proponent’s need for that evidence: Carroll argues that the State did not need the
extraneous-offense evidence of the Garcia robbery to establish identity because Scheets
positively identified Carroll at trial as the man who had held the gun when he was
robbed. But the defense attacked Scheets’s identification during cross-examination by
questioning him about differences in descriptions of the perpetrators’ clothing. Further,
during his opening statement and closing argument, Carroll argued that the evidence
did not support a finding that he was the individual who robbed Scheets.
When identity is “a hotly contested issue,” the State’s need to offer evidence of
an extraneous offense is strong. Karnes v. State, 127 S.W.3d 184, 193 (Tex. App.—Fort
Worth 2003, pet. ref’d) (citing Lane v. State, 933 S.W.2d 504, 520-21 (Tex. Crim. App.
1996)). In this case, identity was the seminal issue in dispute at trial. This factor thus
weighs in favor of admissibility.
Carroll v. State Page 9
Tendency of evidence to suggest a decision on an improper basis: In Lane, the Court of
Criminal Appeals provided:
As for the potential to irrationally impress the jury, it is true that an
extremely similar extraneous offense always carries the potential to
impress the jury of a defendant’s character conformity, an impression the
law seeks to avoid. However, the impermissible inference of character
conformity can be minimized through a limiting instruction.
933 S.W.2d at 520. Here, the trial court gave a limiting instruction to the jury, ordering
them to consider Garcia’s testimony only for the purpose of determining the identity of
the offender in the charged offense. Thus, the extraneous-offense evidence had limited
potential to impress the jury in an irrational way. This factor does not weigh in favor of
exclusion of the evidence.
Jury confusion or distraction, undue weight, and amount of time or repetition: These
factors concern whether presentation of the evidence consumed an inordinate amount
of time or was repetitious, and the evidence’s tendency to confuse or distract the jury or
to cause the jury to place undue weight on its probative value. See Gigliobianco, 210
S.W.3d at 641-42; Newton, 301 S.W.3d at 320. Garcia’s testimony about her robbery was
only about thirty pages of the reporter’s record. It was not repetitious, and we do not
believe that it could cause jury confusion or distraction or cause the jury to give it
undue weight, especially since the trial court gave a limiting instruction to the jury. All
of these factors thus favor admission.
Rule 403 “envisions exclusion of [relevant] evidence only when there is a ‘clear
disparity between the degree of prejudice of the offered evidence and its probative
value.’” Hammer v. State, 296 S.W.3d 555, 568 (Tex. Crim. App. 2009) (quoting Conner v.
Carroll v. State Page 10
State, 67 S.W.3d 192, 202 (Tex. Crim. App. 2001)). We cannot say that there is a “clear
disparity” between the danger of unfair prejudice posed by the extraneous-offense
evidence and its probative value. Thus, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by
overruling Carroll’s Rule 403 objection. We overrule Carroll’s first issue.
BATSON CHALLENGE
In his second issue, Carroll contends that the trial court erred in overruling his
Batson challenge because the State used its peremptory challenges to eliminate all
African Americans from the jury panel and did not give racially neutral explanations
for the challenges.
The exclusion of a venire-member based on race violates the Equal Protection
Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. U.S. CONST.
amend. XIV; Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 89, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 1719, 90 L.Ed.2d 69
(1986). Batson provides a three-step process for a trial court to use in adjudicating a
claim that a peremptory challenge was based on race. Snyder v. Louisiana, 552 U.S. 472,
476, 128 S.Ct. 1203, 1207, 170 L.Ed.2d 175 (2008). First, the defendant must make a prima
facie showing that a peremptory challenge has been exercised on the basis of race.
Snyder, 552 U.S. at 476, 128 S.Ct. at 1207; Watkins v. State, 245 S.W.3d 444, 447 (Tex. Crim.
App. 2008). Second, once the prima facie showing has been made, the burden of
production shifts to the State to articulate a race-neutral reason for its strike. Snyder, 552
U.S. at 476, 128 S.Ct. at 1207; Watkins, 245 S.W.3d at 447. Third, if the State tenders a
race-neutral explanation, the trial court must then decide whether the defendant has
Carroll v. State Page 11
proved purposeful racial discrimination. Snyder, 552 U.S. at 476, 128 S.Ct. at 1207;
Watkins, 245 S.W.3d at 447.
If the opponent of a challenged strike raises a question of purposeful
discrimination, and the trial court proceeds immediately to the State’s race-neutral
reasons for the strike, a reviewing court assumes that the opponent has satisfied the first
step of the Batson process. Watkins, 245 S.W.3d at 447. The second step of the process
does not demand an explanation that is persuasive, or even plausible. Purkett v. Elem,
514 U.S. 765, 768, 115 S.Ct. 1769, 1771, 131 L.Ed.2d 834 (1995). The issue is the facial
validity of the prosecutor’s explanation. Id. Unless a discriminatory intent is inherent
in the prosecutor’s explanation, the reason offered will be deemed race neutral. Id.
It is not until the third step that the persuasiveness of the justification tendered
for the strike becomes relevant. Id. “At that stage, implausible or fantastic justifications
may (and probably will) be found to be pretexts for purposeful discrimination.” Id. In
evaluating the genuineness of the State’s proffered race-neutral reasons, we may
consider: (1) whether the reason given is related to the facts of the case; (2) whether the
State meaningfully questioned the challenged venire member; (3) whether persons with
the same or similar characteristics as the challenged venire member were not struck; (4)
whether there was disparate examination of the members of the venire; and (5) whether
an explanation was based upon a group bias although the specific trait is not shown to
apply to the challenged juror. Williams v. State, 804 S.W.2d 95, 105-06 (Tex. Crim. App.
1991).
Carroll v. State Page 12
In Carroll’s case, the venire included four African Americans. Carroll used a
peremptory strike to remove one of the African Americans from the venire, and the
State used its peremptory strikes to remove the remaining three African Americans
from the venire. Carroll made a Batson challenge, objecting that the State had struck the
three African-American members of the venire, Nos. 8, 10, and 23, on the basis of race.
The trial court asked the State for its race-neutral reasons for the strikes. The State
responded that it struck Nos. 8 and 10 because they were “very talkative” and “had a
lot of questions.” No. 10 specifically had a lot of questions about the possibility that the
weapon used in the offense was not real. Additionally, the State said that it struck No. 8
because he was only twenty-four years old and had been employed for less than nine
months. As to No. 23, the State stated that it struck him because he was only twenty-six
years old and because he “just never talked.”
Carroll then cross-examined the prosecutor. The prosecutor testified that it was
not unusual to have some panel members who did not speak much, and he admitted
that there were a number of venire-members in this case who did not speak much.
Accordingly, he stated that he did not strike anyone solely for their lack of talking but
that it was a consideration in his striking of three non-African-American venire-
members. The prosecutor also testified that a “big factor” in striking Nos. 8 and 23 was
their age. He said age was not a factor for No. 10 because he was thirty-seven.
However, he was “so talktive [sic], asked so many questions about issues of aggravated
robbery, how it can and can’t be committed.” The prosecutor also stated that No. 10’s
Carroll v. State Page 13
employment for only seven months was a reason for the strike even though the State
did not question any of the venire-members about employment.
Carroll argued that “there are a number of people in a similar situation that were
not struck similarly by the State in this case.” He conceded that he understood why the
State would have concerns about No. 10, but he stated that No. 8 appeared to be a fairly
strong juror for the State. The trial court found that the State had provided race-neutral
reasons for striking the venire-members, and it overruled Carroll’s objection.
We will begin with No. 10. If a defendant creates the impression that he is
abandoning an objection, he waives the right to complain of that alleged error on
appeal. See Purtell v. State, 761 S.W.2d 360, 366 (Tex. Crim. App. 1988). Here, Carroll
abandoned his Batson challenge to the State’s strike of No. 10 after the State gave its
race-neutral reason for the strike. Just before the trial court made its ruling, defense
counsel specifically stated: “I agree with regards to . . . Juror No. 10. He was extremely
talktive [sic], and I can understand the State having some concerns about putting
somebody on the panel who asked what about the gun, maybe it wasn’t a gun, that
kind thing.” Thus, Carroll failed to preserve his Batson challenge as to No. 10. See id.
As for Nos. 8 and 23, we will assume that Carroll satisfied his step-one obligation
to make a prima facie case of purposeful discrimination. See Watkins, 245 S.W.3d at 447.
Furthermore, Carroll does not dispute that the State offered race-neutral explanations
for striking Nos. 8 and 23. See Partida v. State, 133 S.W.3d 738, 742 (Tex. App.—Corpus
Christi 2003, no pet.) (“Youth and employment (or lack thereof) are acceptable race-
neutral explanations for striking a prospective juror.”). Instead, Carroll’s focus is on
Carroll v. State Page 14
what he considers to be the State’s inconsistent reasons for striking potential jurors.
Specifically, Carroll complains that the State struck Nos. 8 and 10 in part because they
were talkative but then struck No. 23 in part because he never talked. Carroll also
complains that the State struck Nos. 8 and 23 in part because of their young age but
then stated that it struck No. 10 in part because he was “over 30.”
First, the only discussion about No. 10’s age occurred in the following exchange:
[Defense counsel]: And you said that you struck -- in particular
you struck . . . No. 8, No. 10, and No. 23 in large part because of their age,
is that right?
[Prosecutor]: That’s a big factor, yes. Well, not on . . . No. 10,
because he’s 37 years old. The fact on him was, first of all, the fact he was
so talktive [sic], asked so many questions about issues of aggravated
robbery, how it can and can’t be committed, and the fact that he’s been
employed for seven months.
Thus, the State clarified that it did not actually strike No. 10 because of his age.
Furthermore, a trial court’s decision on whether the defendant has proved a Batson
claim turns, in part, on observations made during the voir dire examination. Therefore,
the court’s determination of a Batson issue must be accorded great deference on appeal.
King v. State, 129 S.W.3d 680, 682 (Tex. App.—Waco 2004, pet. ref’d). The trial court’s
finding that peremptory strikes were not racially motivated will be upheld on appeal if
the finding is not “clearly erroneous” when viewed in the light most favorable to that
ruling. Gibson v. State, 144 S.W.3d 530, 534 (Tex. Crim. App. 2004).
Given the record before us, we cannot conclude that the trial court’s denial of
Carroll’s Batson objection was clearly erroneous. We overrule Carroll’s second issue.
Carroll v. State Page 15
CONCLUSION
Having overruled both of Carroll’s issues, we affirm the trial court’s judgment.
REX D. DAVIS
Justice
Before Chief Justice Gray,
Justice Reyna, and
Justice Davis
Affirmed
Opinion delivered and filed December 15, 2010
Do not publish
[CRPM]
*(Chief Justice Gray concurs in the judgment of the Court affirming Carroll’s
conviction. A separate opinion will not issue. He notes, however, that he does not find
that the characteristics of this crime and the extraneous offense are sufficiently “unusual
or idiosyncratic” to make them the “signature” for the manner in which Carroll
commits his armed robberies. Owens v. State, 827 S.W.2d 911, 914-15 (Tex. Crim. App.
1992) and Taylor v. State, 920 S.W.2d 319, 321-22 (Tex. Crim. App. 1996), respectively.
What must be shown to make the evidence of the extraneous offense admissible is
something that sets it apart from its class or type of crime in general, and marks it
distinctively in the same manner as the principal crime. Ford v. State, 484 S.W.2d 727,
730 (Tex. Crim. App. 1972). He concurs because he finds the error harmless. As to the
Batson issue, he finds he must agree with the Court’s holding under the “clearly
erroneous” standard of review. Grant v. State, No. PD-1059-09, 2010 Tex. Crim. App.
LEXIS 1566, *2-3 (Tex. Crim. App. Nov. 17, 2010). But how strange it is that the race
neutral reason given can be another classification with similar protections as race and
gender; that being age. And it is also ironic that the race-neutral reason given beyond
age is that one prospective juror talked too much and the other talked too little. This
case presents a compelling exhibit for the Honorable Levi Benton’s argument to
eliminate preemptory strikes. If we fail to limit the improper use of preemptory strikes
by striking down only the most egregious examples of race and gender discrimination, I
fear we endanger the very existence of this powerful tool for jury selection in Texas.)
Carroll v. State Page 16