You will hear argument this morning in case 247351, Pitchford versus Kane.

Mr. Perkovich.

Mr. Chief Justice, may it please the Court.

In the selection of Terry Pitchford's capital jury in 2006, the trial court grasped and conducted just two of Batson's three steps after the district attorney struck

in succession for black citizens. Despite the state's assertions throughout the red brief,

the judge never determined the credibility of the prosecutor's step two proffers. Had the

judge done what Batson demands in step three, the court would have considered from the voir dire that single February morning,

the prosecutor's absence of questioning about the issues, and the proffers' lack of record support and irrelevance to the case.

What is more, proper credibility determinations would have concerned numerous extreme bad faith findings

against this district attorney and two Mississippi Supreme Court capital reversals published in 2003

and 2000, which held this prosecutor had fabricated prior statements to impeach four witnesses who were

black and in closing argument espoused 14 discreet had fabricated prior statements to impeach four witnesses who were black,

and in closing argument, espoused 14 discreet lies about the record.

Instead of abiding Batson, Pitchford's trial court careened to opening arguments.

When the defense strained to be heard before the jury's impanlement,

both about Batson and a fair cross-section challenge. The judge assured her three times the Batson objections were preserved. Yet the

Mississippi Supreme Court found that Pitchford's defense failed to rebut the proffers and thus

waived argument, while deeming the merely race-neutral proffers

as, quote, acceptable, a pale substitute for Batson's demands, and a sidestep of the trial

court's failure to determine the credibility of the four strikes. The trial court's unrectified

failings in this prosecution, also riddled with other misconduct,

yielded a jury selected with discriminatory taint, which in turn condemned an 18-year-old whose accomplice,

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