PEOPLE v. ISSAC (1999)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Dorothy Cropper, J.), rendered November 4, 1996, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of robbery in the first degree (2 counts), robbery in the second degree (2 counts) and resisting arrest, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to two concurrent terms of 121/212 to 25 years concurrent with two concurrent terms of 71/212 to 15 years and 1 year, respectively, unanimously affirmed.

 The court properly denied defendant's Batson challenge (see, People v. Payne, 88 N.Y.2d 172, 183-184, 643 N.Y.S.2d 949, 666 N.E.2d 542).   The record clearly reveals that the prosecutor had a race-neutral, nonpretextual reason for challenging a prospective juror who believed that his brother had been wrongly convicted of a crime (see, People v. Roberts, 208 A.D.2d 410, 617 N.Y.S.2d 174).   Since the record is sufficient to establish that defendant's Batson claim was patently lacking in substance, we find that defendant was not prejudiced by the abbreviated manner in which the court conducted the Batson proceeding (see, People v. Billini, 257 A.D.2d 513, 682 N.Y.S.2d 591, lv. denied 93 N.Y.2d 922, 693 N.Y.S.2d 505, 715 N.E.2d 508).

We have considered and rejected defendant's remaining claims, including those contained in his pro se supplemental brief.

MEMORANDUM DECISION.