Maryland's highest court ordered a new hearing yesterday in the case of a Baltimore County man convicted of felony murder, saying two black residents might have unlawfully been kept from sitting on the jury that convicted him.

In what the defense attorney for Jerome M. Edmonds called an unusual move, the Maryland Court of Appeals said Baltimore County Circuit Judge J. Norris Byrnes must revisit whether prosecutors excluded two potential jurors because they were black.

Although lawyers are allowed to reject a certain number of potential jurors without explanation, the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment forbids them from excluding people on the basis of race.

In Edmonds' case, defense attorney Sally C. Chester said, "The transcript is pretty obvious."

"The state was striking these jurors for what I thought were not appropriate reasons," she said.

Edmonds, of Middle River, was charged in 2000 in the fatal shooting of John J. Sullivan, a 19-year-old Massachusetts resident who was visiting his father in Essex. He was convicted last year.

Police said that Sullivan had walked to a playground to smoke when he was approached by at least two men who demanded money. Sullivan, who had only pocket change, said he did not have any cash. That's when police said Edmonds shot him in the head.

Edmonds was sentenced to 45 years in prison. He is black. Sullivan was white.

During jury selection at Edmonds' trial, prosecutors said they were eliminating people for reasons unrelated to race: Two of the jurors in question had relatives who had been convicted of crimes, and the other had mistakenly said she might know the defendant, they said.

But the judge said he did not believe some of the prosecutor's arguments, and placed one black woman they had rejected on the jury. The jury ended up being composed of nine Caucasians, two African-Americans and one South Asian-American.

Edmonds' lawyers said more should have been done to correct what they saw as a violation of jury selection rules that made it impossible for their client to have a fair trial. They said at least the two other people were excluded illegitimately.

The court said that because they do not know whether Byrnes sided with the defense or prosecutors in regard to those potential jurors, the matter should go back in front of the judge so he can make a decision.

Neither Chester nor Assistant State's Attorney Steve Kroll, who prosecuted Edmonds, could comment specifically on the high court's opinion because they said they had not read it.