Ex Parte Owen
Donald Lewis Owen was convicted of capital murder and was sentenced to a term of life in the state penitentiary without the possibility of parole. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Owen‘s conviction, 586 So.2d 958, and we issued the writ of certiorari to review that court‘s holding that Owen, who is white, lacked standing to contest the State‘s use of its peremptory strikes to eliminate black venirepersons from the trial jury.
While Owen‘s case was on certiorari review in this Court, the United States Supreme Court decided Powers v. Ohio, ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 1364, 113 L.Ed.2d 411 (1991). In Powers, the Court held that a white criminal defendant has standing under the Equal Protection Clause of the
Therefore, on the authority of Powers and Bird, the Court of Criminal Appeals’ judgment, based on a holding that Owen lacked standing to challenge the State‘s use of its peremptory strikes to exclude black venirepersons from the jury, is reversed, and the cause is remanded with directions to remand the cause to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
REVERSED AND REMANDED WITH DIRECTIONS.
HORNSBY, C.J., and MADDOX, ADAMS, HOUSTON, STEAGALL and KENNEDY, JJ., concur.