[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

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No. 22-12148 ____________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus QUINTON JAROD SIMMONS,

Defendant-Appellant.

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Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia D.C. Docket No. 7:19-cr-00025-WLS-TQL-1 ____________________ USCA11 Case: 22-12148 Document: 36-1 Date Filed: 12/06/2024 Page: 2 of 15

2 Opinion of the Court 22-12148

Before BRANCH, GRANT, Circuit Judges, and CALVERT, * District Judge. GRANT, Circuit Judge: District courts have broad discretion over the management of trials. This authority springs from rules and statutes, of course, but also from the inherent powers necessary to ensure the just and expeditious resolution of cases. Here, a criminal defendant challenges the district court’s decision in an area not covered by a specific rule—whether to allow the defense to play video clips for the first time during closing argument. We can see why the court said no. Had it allowed this last-minute maneuver, the new video clips would have come in with no explanation from any witness and no opportunity for a government witness to testify about them—even though the defendant himself had argued they were not authenticated. Under these circumstances, the district court did not abuse its broad discretion to control the scope of closing arguments. The defendant also raises a Batson challenge, but failed to make a prima facie showing below that the government struck jurors based on their race. What’s more, we see no error in the district court’s acceptance of the unrebutted, race-neutral justifications offered for each strike. We therefore affirm.

* The Honorable Victoria M. Calvert, United States District Judge for the

Northern District of Georgia, sitting by designation. USCA11 Case: 22-12148 Document: 36-1 Date Filed: 12/06/2024 Page: 3 of 15

22-12148 Opinion of the Court 3

I. One night on patrol, Officer Devosie Jones of the City of Remerton Police Department saw a black Cadillac with only one headlight shining. He initiated a traffic stop, turning on his lights, and adding sirens when the Cadillac refused to slow down. Eventually, Officer Jones reached a speed of between sixty and seventy miles per hour (the speed limit was thirty-five). Just as his supervisor, Corporal Elvoid Hunter, was calling off the pursuit, the Cadillac crashed into a tree. Jones approached the wreckage and saw Quinton Simmons trying (unsuccessfully) to climb out of the passenger side of the car; the door frame had been dented in the collision. Jones, with help from another officer who had arrived as backup, extracted Simmons from the badly damaged vehicle. When Corporal Hunter arrived eight to ten minutes later, he and Jones worked together to open the car doors. They found two bags of suspected narcotics and a firearm. Simmons was charged with (1) possession of methamphetamine with i