CARSON CITY — The removal of the only two African-American jurors from Tamir Hamilton’s murder trial and whether the district court ruled appropriately on his insanity defense were the concerns raised Wednesday at the appeal of Hamilton's death sentence before the Nevada Supreme Court.

Hamilton was convicted by a Washoe County jury in March 2008 of the sexual assault and first-degree murder of Sparks teen Holly Quick. In September 2006, the 16-year-old was found by her mother in her bedroom with her throat slashed. At the time of his conviction, Hamilton was serving a life sentence for the rape of a local college student.

Judge Connie Steinheimer of the Washoe District Court slated Hamilton’s execution for July 14, 2008, but it was stayed with an automatic appeal to Nevada’s high court.

Public defenders Cheryl Bond and John Petty argued Wednesday that the prosecution's dismissal of two jurors by the names of Moore and Claymore was based on race. Petty referred to the 1986 case Batson v. Kentucky case in which the U.S. Supreme Court determined that prosecutors cannot use peremptory challenges — the act of dismissing jurors without stating a valid reason — to exclude jury members based solely on race because it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In the Batson case, in which a black man was found guilty of burglary in Louisville, Ky., the jury was made up of all white jurors.

“I submit with reason … that basically Miss Moore was excluded on the basis of race if Miss Moore were the only juror excluded,” Petty said. “It is enhanced because the other black juror was stricken by the prosecutor. That means 100 percent of the African-American jury pool was excluded.”

The reason for the prosecution's dismissal of Moore, according to Washoe County deputy district attorney Joseph Platter, was her responses to questions about the death penalty. Platter said Moore indicated during jury selection that she thought a life sentence would be a worse punishment than death. He also said she showed hesitation when stating that she would support a death sentence for Hamilton if convicted.

Platter said the Washoe County District Attorney’s office has a history of “purposeful discrimination,” meaning there were many other plausible reasons to dismiss Moore as a juror.

“(Moore said), ‘Yes, I feel a life sentence could be worse than death,’ ” Platter said. “She had a son who was murdered, the suspect was convicted and now he’s paying for it every day in a life sentence. She said in her mind, that’s how he’s paying for it. ‘Now I have peace about it.’ She said she probably could reasonably conclude being satisfied with someone getting a life sentence without parole. That’s a valid reason for striking her.”

A panel member’s body language, however, also came up. “Reasonable minds might disagree about the professional credibility of the demeanor of jurors,” Platter said.

Demeanor, he explained, denotes body language. Referring to Hamilton’s trial records, one of the two jurors rolled his eyes, expressing deference and implicating that he wasn’t taking his job as a juror seriously. He added that the record is unable to show the actions as recorded in written discussion and recorded by a court stenographer.

Justice Michael Douglas was skeptical of the argument.

“That does not mean we don’t take our obligations seriously,” he said. “It means we happen to roll our eyes. There are issues there I think we have the ability to look at.”

In addition to the juror issue, Bond argued the jury was not properly instructed on Hamilton’s insanity defense, in which an expert gave testimony that he believed the man had a psychotic break when he raped and killed Quick. During trial in 2008, Dr. David Schmidt, a neuropsychologist, testified to Hamilton’s diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia. He gave an account of his conversations with Hamilton, who said God talked to him and had hallucinations of bugs crawling under his skin. However, according to Bond, Schmidt was not permitted to testify as to whether he believed Hamilton was legally insane.

Justice Michael Cherry asked Bond if Hamilton premeditated Quick’s murder.

“There was a psychotic break,” she said. “That somehow diminished … his intent.”

Bond said Schmidt had testified that Hamilton was unable to recall the exact moment Quick was killed. She added it would be difficult to make a conclusion on his mental health based on hearsay.

“The jury couldn’t get a full explanation of what Hamilton said,” Bond explained. “He remembered her being alive. … The jury wasn’t properly instructed.”

No date is set for a ruling on the appeal.