—Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Rios, J.), rendered April 3, 1997, convicting him of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
The defendant’s Batson challenge (see, Batson v Kentucky,
The Supreme Court properly determined that the explanation proffered by the defense counsel when the prosecution made a Batson-Kern challenge (see, People v Kern,
We note, however, this Court’s disapproval of the manner in which the Supreme Court conducted the voir dire. Joy, J. P., Goldstein, H. Miller and Schmidt, JJ., concur.
