Opinion ID: 1441142
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Batson and J.E.B.

Text: A federal court must grant a state prisoner a writ of habeas corpus only if the state court decision was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, or was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). Thus, the state court's decision must be objectively unreasonable, and not merely incorrect, for us to grant the writ. Lockyer v. Andrade, 538 U.S. 63, 75-76, 123 S.Ct. 1166, 155 L.Ed.2d 144 (2003); Forsyth v. Ault, 537 F.3d 887, 890-91 (8th Cir.2008). We presume that the state court's findings of fact are correct, and the prisoner has the burden of rebutting the presumption of correctness by clear and convincing evidence. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1). The Equal Protection Clause prohibits the use of race-based peremptory strikes against a person. Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 90-91, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). Under J.E.B. v. Alabama ex rel. T.B., 511 U.S. 127, 141-42, 114 S.Ct. 1419, 128 L.Ed.2d 89 (1994), this rule also applies to peremptory strikes based on the potential juror's sex. Once a prima facie case has been made that a Batson or J.E.B. violation has occurred, the burden shifts to the state to offer a race- or sex-neutral explanation for the strike. Swope v. Razzaq, 428 F.3d 1152, 1154 (8th Cir.2005) (per curiam). The burden then returns to the defendant to prove that the state's explanation was pretextual. See id. at 1154-55. The court should consider all the relevant circumstances in resolving this issue. See Miller-El v. Dretke, 545 U.S. 231, 265-66, 125 S.Ct. 2317, 162 L.Ed.2d 196 (2005). Barnett argues that the Missouri Supreme Court's application of J.E.B. was unreasonable regarding two female potential jurors, Donna Straub and Paula Moore. The prosecutor stated that she struck Straub because Straub was a very young female who is single, and that Straub was weak and would not be a good state's juror. The Missouri Supreme Court upheld the strike because the prosecutor's response, in context, is that Ms. Straub was struck because she was `very young' and `single,' not because she was `female.' State v. Barnett, 980 S.W.2d at 302. The prosecutor's motive in striking a juror is a factual issue, Shurn v. Delo, 177 F.3d 662, 665 (8th Cir.1999), and so is entitled to the presumption of correctness required by 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1), which can be rebutted only by clear and convincing evidence. Barnett argues that the Missouri Supreme Court's decision is unreasonable because the prosecutor used all of her eleven peremptory strikes against women and none against similarly situated men. Barnett compares his case favorably to the facts in Miller-El, which was decided subsequent to the denial of his petition for habeas relief. In Miller-El, prosecutors shuffled the jury twice and offered no reason to rebut the defendant's evidence that this was done to limit the number of black persons on the jury. Id. at 265. Ten of the eleven qualified black persons were peremptorily struck; two of those who were allegedly struck for being hesitant about applying the death penalty actually gave answers that any unbiased prosecutor seeking the death penalty would have readily accepted. Id. Half of the blacks but only 3% of the non-blacks were subject to a strike-justifying script designed to elicit hesitation about imposing the death penalty. Id. All of the blacks but only about a quarter of the non-blacks were asked a trick question. Id. at 265-66. The prosecutors' chosen race-neutral reasons for the strikes do not hold up and are so far at odds with the evidence that pretext is the fair conclusion. ... Id. at 265. Although the use of the strikes against only women may constitute some evidence of a discriminatory motive, Barnett does not point to the presence of any young, single males in the jury pool whom the prosecutor should have struck. Further, the egregious facts present in Miller-El were not present during Barnett's trial. There was no jury shuffling, and no different forms of questioning were posed to the male and female members of the jury pool. Accordingly, any differences between the justification for the strike and the answers given by Straub are not sufficient to rebut by clear and convincing evidence the sex-neutral explanation offered by the prosecutor. The prosecutor stated that she struck Moore because Moore had not answered any of her questions, with the result that she felt like Moore was an unknown. Barnett makes much of the fact that Moore did actually answer one of the prosecutor's questions with a yes, contending that this demonstrates the prosecutor's discriminatory intent. Barnett also argues that two male jurors had been similarly silent during voir dire but were not struck. While this may constitute some evidence of a J.E.B. violation, silence during general questions to the venire is a race- and sex-neutral reason for a strike. Also, the prosecutor's failure to recall that one juror did in fact answer one question does not constitute clear and convincing evidence of discriminatory intent. Accordingly, the district court did not err in ruling that the Missouri Supreme Court's decision denying Barnett's challenge to the jury-selection process was neither contrary to, nor an unreasonable application of, federal law. In reaching this conclusion, we have taken into account the Supreme Court's recent decision in Snyder v. Louisiana, ___ U.S. ___, 128 S.Ct. 1203, 170 L.Ed.2d 175 (2008), and find that none of the factors that warranted habeas relief in that case were present in Barnett's case.