Opinion ID: 78335
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Juror Exclusion Based on Race

Text: Parker argues that, over his objection, the prosecution struck eight of nine qualified black venire members. He contends that the trial court's finding on remand that the prosecutor struck the jurors on facially-neutral grounds is not supported by the record because eight of the seated jurors had exactly the same characteristics that the prosecution identified as the bases for excluding four black venire members. He contends that the prosecution's explanations for striking the venire members and for failing to strike other similarly situated white venire members are inconsistent with its failure to question the white venire members about their traffic violations and personal and family criminal histories. The prosecution exercised peremptory strikes against eight of the nine black venire members. The stricken black venire members included Juror 3, Sheila Armstead; Juror 21, Thykle L. Coman; Juror 25, Jeffrey S. Davis; Juror 67, Willie M. Mayes; Juror 77, Cynthia Montgomery; Juror 83, Annie O. Owes; Juror 120, Eugene L. Watkins; and Juror 121, Mary A. Webb. Black venire member Carter Triplett, Juror 113, was selected for the jury. During voir dire, none of the black jurors responded positively when asked whether they believed that the death penalty should be applied in the case of a murder. The prosecution then used 26 of its 28 strikes to strike individuals who did not answer favorably toward the death penalty. The reasons provided by the prosecution for exercising these strikes included (1) Coman's general opposition to the death penalty; [7] (2) the belief that Coman [8] and Webb, [9] who had taken psychology classes or training, would give undue emphasis to a defense psychologist's testimony, R1-17, Exh. Vol. 3 at 402-04; (3) the belief that Armstead, [10] Coman, [11] Montgomery, [12] and Owes, [13] who each were related to someone who had been charged with a crime, might be prejudice[d] against the State, Exh. Evid. HR at id. at 17-18, 20-24, 32-36, 38-40; and (4) the belief that Watkins, [14] who had a series of traffic offenses and arrests, might think that the State ... [was] picking on him, not be open minded ... to the testimony of law enforcement officers, and have an inability to follow the law. Id. at 24-25, 40-41. Davis indicated that, if the jury was sequestered, he would have problems staying overnight. [15] Mayes worked with members of co-defendant Williams' family and had overheard conversations regarding the case. [ Id. at 21-22.] White venire members were stricken for some of the same reasons. Juror 92, Betty Rickard, was stricken for her general opposition to the death penalty; Jurors 9, Rebecca Barr; 58, Sharon Landers; 63, Rebecca Livingston; 82, Marshal Newman; Rickard; and 129, Marty Willingham, were stricken because they had prior training or course-work in psychology; and Willingham had a record of minor traffic offenses. Jurors 40, Pamela Hendon; 53, Jenaine Johnson; and Jennifer Razor said that it would be difficult for them to stay overnight. Juror 68, Birdie McCarley was stricken because she knew members of Parker's family. Eight of the eleven white seated jurors were, however, related to someone who had been convicted of a felony, had taken a psychology course, knew one of the defense attorneys, or had been convicted of more than one traffic offense. Seated white juror Joni Simpson admitted that she had taken a course in psychology. The prosecutor admitted that he erred in not striking Simpson because he intended to strike all of the venire members who had taken psychology classes and his note indicated that he had. Simpson and seated juror Gary Highfield knew defense attorney, Gene Hamby, and seated juror Teddy Roe Mansell knew defense attorney H. Thomas Heflin, Jr.'s law partner, who had represented Mansell's ex-wife during child support contempt proceedings. Seated jurors Highfield, [16] Mansell, [17] Mike Quillen, [18] Williams Glenn Pettus, [19] Simpson, [20] and alternate juror Johnny O. Miller, all had traffic offense records. [21] Many of the seated jurors' traffic offenses occurred outside of Colbert County, and Quillen's traffic offenses occurred in Tennessee. Highfield, Mansell, Pettus and Simpson had only one traffic ticket each from Colbert County. Mansell had been prosecuted for child support contempt proceedings. Seated jurors James Ayers, Highfield, LaDecca Holt, Lucy Lowry, Noel Gene Morris, and Quillen were related to someone who had a felony conviction. The convictions of the family members of Ayers, Lowry, and Morris were outside of the five year scope of the prosecutor's investigation. [22] The convictions of the family members of Highfield, Lowry, Morris, and Quillen occurred outside of Colbert County, Alabama. [23] LeDecca Holt's uncle by marriage, Curtis Sheffield, had a felony conviction in Colbert County. [24] Exh. Evid. HR at 64. The prosecution used 28 percent of its total strikes to strike black venire members, who composed about seven percent of the total venire and eight percent of the seated jury. Acknowledging that black jurors were struck, the prosecution argued that race had nothing to do with the strikes because they were not paying attention to race. Id. at 27. During its first twelve strikes, the prosecution used eight strikes against blacks. In making the strikes, the prosecution relied on information regarding repeat traffic violations and criminal prosecutions of the jurors or their families that its investigator had obtained and did not question the jurors if that information indicated a potential problem that might lead to bias. The investigator's search spanned five years, which was the amount of time that the prosecuting district attorney had been in office and that the records were retained in the county clerk's office. Traffic investigations were performed on any venire members who were thought to have a history of traffic offenses based on the prosecution's investigator's interviews with law enforcement officers. Id. at 41. The prosecutor explained that he did not question the venire members regarding information that he had obtained from their individual voir dire questionnaires or his investigator because he did not want to embarrass them in front of the other venire members. He acknowledged that, although individual voir dires were available, he did not use them. He said that he had no knowledge of Holt's family member's crime and missed it during the investigation. Id. at 90. On direct appeal, the state appellate court affirmed the trial judge's commendable thoroughness and ... conscientiousness in making findings and concluding that Batson was not violated. Parker II, 610 So.2d at 1172. The state trial court compared each of the reasons for the prosecutor's strikes, noted the prosecution's practice regarding its investigatory methods, and commented that, even if the prosecution had done a state-wide investigation of the venire members' traffic records, it would only have been able to get records for five years. Id. at 1173-76. Based on the analysis of the strikes and investigatory methods, the trial court d[id] not find that there was a significant disparate treatment of [the venire-members] with the same characteristics. Id. at 1176. The district court found that the prosecution's failure to strike the white jurors with traffic convictions or family member convictions that occurred outside of Colbert County or more than five years earlier was not inconsistent with its striking of black jurors who had traffic convictions and family member convictions that occurred within Colbert County within the last five years. It found that the trial court's conclusion satisfied Batson and that its decision was neither contrary to nor involved an unreasonable application of the law. Because it is constitutionally permissible for the prosecutor to retain jurors who are death qualified and to strike jurors who state that they could not impose the death penalty under any circumstance, Lockhart v. McCree, 476 U.S. 162, 165-67, 175-77, 106 S.Ct. 1758, 1760-62, 1766-67, 90 L.Ed.2d 137 (1986), the prosecution legitimately struck Coman. In Batson, the Supreme Court held it unconstitutional for the prosecution to challenge potential jurors based solely on their race or on the assumption that because of their race they will be unable to consider the case impartially. 476 U.S. at 89, 106 S.Ct. at 1719. A defendant may raise the necessary inference of purposeful discrimination in selection of the petit jury based solely on evidence concerning the prosecutor's exercise of peremptory challenges during the trial. Id. at 96, 106 S.Ct. at 1723. [T]he defendant first must show that he is a member of a cognizable racial group, and that the prosecutor has exercised peremptory challenges to remove from the venire members of the defendant's race. Second, the defendant is entitled to rely on the [undisputed] fact... that peremptory challenges constitute a jury selection practice that permits those to discriminate who are of a mind to discriminate. Finally, the defendant must show that these facts and any other relevant circumstances raise an inference that the prosecutor used that practice to exclude the veniremen from the petit jury on account of their race. Id., 106 S.Ct. at 1723 (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). It is not necessary to show that all or even a majority of the prosecutor's strikes were discriminatory; any single strike demonstrated to result from purposeful discrimination is sufficient. See McNair v. Campbell, 416 F.3d 1291, 1311 (11th Cir.2005). In Powers v. Ohio, 499 U.S. 400, 402, 111 S.Ct. 1364, 1366, 113 L.Ed.2d 411 (1991), Batson claims were extended to defendants regardless of whether they share the same race as the struck jurors. Once the defendant makes a prima facie showing, the burden shifts to the prosecution to explain, in clearly and reasonably specific terms, the legitimate race-neutral reasons for striking the jurors in question. Batson, 476 U.S. at 97, 98 n. 20, 106 S.Ct. at 1723, 1724 n. 20. The court must then confront the decisive question and evaluate the credibility of the prosecution's explanation, Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352, 365, 111 S.Ct. 1859, 1869, 114 L.Ed.2d 395 (1991), in light of all evidence with a bearing on it. Miller-El v. Dretke, 545 U.S. 231, 252, 125 S.Ct. 2317, 2331, 162 L.Ed.2d 196 (2005). Finally, the court must determine whether the defendant has established purposeful discrimination. Batson, 476 U.S. at 98, 106 S.Ct. at 1724. The reasons stated by the prosecutor provide the only reasons on which the prosecutor's credibility is to be judged. United States v. Houston, 456 F.3d 1328, 1335 (11th Cir.2006). The credibility of the prosecution's explanation is to be evaluated considering the totality of the relevant facts, including whether members of a race were disproportionately excluded. Hernandez, 500 U.S. at 363, 111 S.Ct. at 1868 (quotation marks and citation omitted). Questions arise regarding the credibility of the explanation and the possibility that the explanation is pretextual (1) when the prosecutor's explanation for a strike is equally applicable to jurors of a different race who have not been stricken, Caldwell v. Maloney, 159 F.3d 639, 651 (1st Cir.1998); (2) upon a comparative analysis of the jurors struck and those who remained, Turner v. Marshall, 121 F.3d 1248, 1251-52 (9th Cir.1997), including the attributes of the white and black venire members, Houston, 456 F.3d at 1338; (3) or when the prosecution fails to engage in a meaningful voir dire examination on a subject that it alleges it is concerned, Miller-El, 545 U.S. at 246, 125 S.Ct. at 2328. Evidence of purposeful discrimination may be shown through side-by-side comparisons confirming that the reasons for striking a black panelist also apply to similar non-black panelists who were permitted to serve. See id. at 241, 125 S.Ct. at 2325. A prosecutor's reasonable explanation for objecting to a black panelist based on his or her opinions or comments may be undercut by the prosecution's failure to object to other white panelists who expressed similar views, and may be evidence of pretext. Id. at 248, 125 S.Ct. at 2329-30. The prosecutor's failure to strike similarly situated jurors is not pretextual, however, where there are relevant differences between the struck jurors and the comparator jurors. United States v. Novaton, 271 F.3d 968, 1004 (11th Cir.2001). The prosecutor's explanation does not demand an explanation that is persuasive, or even plausible; so long as the reason is not inherently discriminatory, it suffices. Rice v. Collins, 546 U.S. 333, 338, 126 S.Ct. 969, 973-74, 163 L.Ed.2d 824 (2006) (quotation marks and citation omitted). Neither a prosecutor's mistaken belief about a juror nor failure to ask a voir dire question provides clear and convincing evidence of pretext. McNair, 416 F.3d at 1311-12. If the fact-finder determines that the prosecutor's race-neutral explanations are true, the petitioner may obtain relief only by showing that the state court's conclusion was an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented during the state proceedings. Miller El, 545 U.S. at 240, 125 S.Ct. at 2325. Consistent with § 2254(e)(1), we presume the state court's factual findings to be correct unless the petitioner rebuts that presumption with clear and convincing evidence. Id. The standard is demanding but not insatiable; ... deference does not by definition preclude relief. Id. (citation and internal punctuation omitted). We cannot, however, substitute our evaluation of the record for that of the state trial court, as we presume the state court's factual findings to be correct, and cannot grant a habeas petition unless the state court's credibility findings regarding the prosecutor's race-neutral explanations for the Batson challenge are unreasonable ... in light of the evidence presented in the state court. Rice, 546 U.S. at 337-39, 126 S.Ct. at 973-74. Based on the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals' remand for the prosecution to offer race-neutral reasons for striking the jurors, we assume that a prima facie showing under Batson was made. See Parker I, 587 So.2d at 1077; Novaton, 271 F.3d at 1003 (assuming a prima facie showing when the district court required the prosecution to offer race-neutral reasons for its strikes). Based on the state court's application of the law, acceptance of the prosecutor's stated reasons for his strikes, and consideration of the differences in the situations of the stricken and seated jurors, the district court did not err in finding that the state court reasonably applied Batson and that Parker failed to prove purposeful discrimination under Batson.