Allen

Certified for Partial Publication. [*]

Defendant Darrell Allen was sentenced to nine years in prison after a jury convicted him of theft, receiving stolen property, possession of a firearm, and resisting arrest. On appeal, he contends the prosecutor impermissibly exercised peremptory challenges to remove two African American women from his jury. He also contends the trial court erred by failing to give a unanimity instruction regarding the receiving stolen property count and by giving CALJIC No. 17.41.1. While in the unpublished portion of this opinion we reject one of defendant's asserted instructional errors, and find it unnecessary to determine the prejudicial effect of the other, in the published portion we conclude that the trial court's failure to correct the prosecutor's impermissible use of peremptory challenges requires that the judgment be reversed.

At the start of the jury trial the trial judge conducted voir dire of the potential jurors including two African American women later challenged by the prosecutor. [2] Ms. W. stated that she was a benefit authorizer with the Social Security Administration and that her home had been burglarized about fours years…