Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the 7–2 majority, ruled that the prosecutor's use of peremptory strikes to remove African American jurors violated the Court's earlier holding in Batson v. Kentucky.

Allen Snyder was charged with first-degree murder in the August 1995 stabbing to death of Howard Wilson.

[1] Snyder appealed his conviction, arguing that under Batson v. Kentucky,[2] the prosecution should not have been permitted to exercise its peremptory jury challenges based on race.

The question the Supreme Court posed to the parties was: Did the state's dismissal by peremptory challenge of all of the African American potential jurors amount to a violation of the Equal Protection Clause?

Respondent claimed that the race-neutral reasons offered at voir dire were legitimate, and the trial court agreed.

Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the Court, concluded that the trial judge had acted improperly in allowing the prosecutor to peremptorily strike the African American jurors.