PEOPLE v. JONES (2008)

 OPINION

The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed.

 Defendant Lionel Jones failed to meet his burden of establishing a prima facie case of discrimination pursuant to Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 [1986].   While the party making a Batson challenge need not establish a pattern of discrimination to satisfy the step-one burden (see People v. Smocum, 99 N.Y.2d 418, 421-422, 757 N.Y.S.2d 239, 786 N.E.2d 1275 [2003] ), “sketchy assertions” and declarations that the prospective juror “indicated no reason why [the juror] could not serve fairly” are, standing alone, generally insufficient to establish a prima facie case of discrimination (People v. Childress, 81 N.Y.2d 263, 267-268, 598 N.Y.S.2d 146, 614 N.E.2d 709 [1993] [internal quotation marks omitted] ).   Defense counsel's contentions that the prosecutor's peremptory challenge of an African-American prospective juror must have been based on her race because the challenged juror's answers were “neutral” and “would not give [the prosecutor] any reason to believe that she could [not] be impartial” are exactly the kind of vague and conclusory assertions this Court rejected in Childress.

Finally, the hearing court's determination that the police possessed founded suspicion of criminality justifying a common-law inquiry, a mixed question of law and fact, is supported by the record (People v. Battaglia, 86 N.Y.2d 755, 756, 631 N.Y.S.2d 128, 655 N.E.2d 169 [1995] ).   Accordingly, this Court's review process is exhausted.

Order affirmed in a memorandum.

MEMORANDUM.

Chief Judge KAYE and Judges CIPARICK, GRAFFEO, READ, SMITH, PIGOTT and JONES concur.