Court Opinion

ID: 9497602
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:55:16.697295+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:17.680791
License: Public Domain

RAWLINSON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
After the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), no prosecutor worth his salt is going to come right out and say: “The defendant in this case is Native American. I do not want any Native Americans on the jury .because Native American jurors might be more reluctant to convict Native American defendants.” The prosecutor in this case came as close to this admission as we are likely ever to see. Not only did he use his peremptory challenges to exclude every prospective Native American juror, he candidly admitted that his decision was driven by the race of the prospective jurors.
To understand the magnitude of the prosecutor’s actions, it is important to consider the sequence of events leading to the defense’s Wheeler challenge.1
' The trial court identified three Native American prospective jurors who were peremptorily challenged by the prosecution: Ms. Rindels, Ms. Lawton and Ms. Smithfield.
The. prosecutor gave the following explanation for excusing Ms. Rindels from the jury panel:
My experience is the [Njative Americans who are employed by the tribe are a little more prone to associate themselves with the culture and beliefs of the tribe than they are with the mainstream system, and my experience is that they are sometimes resistive of the criminal justice system generally and somewhat suspicious of the system.
She was pretentious in my mind and self-important with the thought that only she could complete the necessary paperwork which would get the grant. She was emotional about the system as I indicated before. Her daughter had been molested by her father, and for that reason I’m assuming that the living situation was indicative of something of a dysfunctional family. I viewed her as somewhat unstable, fairly weak, and *345somebody who I thought would be easily swayed by the defense.
As to prospective juror Lawton, the prosecutor responded:
She would be commuting from the Willow Creek area. We’re going into the winter. That sometimes is [a] fairly hazardous commute, although she had been commuting from where she lived to Trinity County and Weaverville and that is equally hazardous, but sometimes the road is closed, and that sometimes can affect our ability to go forward, and there is a certain flow to the proceedings that I frankly don’t like to see disrupted if I can help it.
The prosecutor justified his challenge to Ms. Smithfield with the following explanation:
She also was the individual who wrote a letter to the Court to reemphasize how important she thought her position was and how important that she thought it was that she be there.
Now, I know we’ve had an awful lot of people who’ve talked about that, and we’ve had an awful lot of teachers, in fact I can’t think of one teacher who didn’t think they were pretty important and needed to be at their school, but we’ve got teachers on the panel, but she seemed overly concerned with that, took the time to sit down and write another letter to the Court about that, and for those reasons I didn’t think that she was an appropriate juror in this case.
The prosecutor also expressed a stereotypical view of Native Americans by making the following remarks:
[I]n this county we’ve had Dr. Roy Alsop come in here and explain to the courts and I’ve seen this on the criminal calendar, child molesting is okay in certain [Njative American cultures, and we can’t treat [Njative American child molesters the same way we treat other child molesters, and have to treat them through the [Ijndian culture center and there are a whole bunch of people that violate our laws that are [Njative Americans and they go much more often through the [Njative American system than the criminal system, and to say that does not exist is frankly incorrect.
Although this case had absolutely nothing to do with child molesting, the prosecutor took great pains to inform the court that, at least in his view, the Native American culture is at odds with the criminal justice system.
Against this factual backdrop, we must examine whether the California Court of Appeal’s ruling upholding the denial of the defendants’ Wheeler/Batson motions was an unreasonable determination of the facts. See McClain v. Prunty, 217 F.3d 1209,1224 (9th Cir.2000).
After culling out the “race-neutral” reasons articulated by the prosecutor, the California Court of Appeal ruled that these reasons were sufficient to defeat the defendant’s Wheeler/Batson claim.
The California Court of Appeal recognized that once the defendant has established a prima facie case of a pattern of race-based peremptory challenges, the burden shifts to the prosecution to provide race-neutral explanations for the exercise of the peremptory challenges at issue. However, contrary to the implied holding of the California Court of Appeal, the analysis does not end there.
The majority opinion fills in the analysis that was not performed by the California Court of Appeal. In doing so, the majority frames the issue as “[wjhether the state appellate court erred in undertaking a *346‘mixed motive’ analysis2 to uphold the constitutionality of three peremptory challenges, when the state prosecutor offered ethnic-neutral reasons for exercising those challenges against three Native American veniremembers, together with an ethnic-based reason for challenging one of those veniremembers.”3 Majority Opinion at 17005. Unfortunately for the viability of the majority ruling, the California Court of Appeal simply did not apply a mixed motives analysis.
In assessing the Court of Appeal’s ruling, we must remain mindful of the reason for the analysis: to fulfill our obligation to provide a jury free from bias against any particular ethnic group. The United States Supreme Court said as much in Batson.
In Batson, the Court reminded us that “[m]ore than a century ago, the Court decided that the State denies a ... defendant equal protection of the laws when it puts him on trial before a jury from which members of his race have been purposefully excluded. That decision laid The foundation for the Court’s unceasing efforts to eradicate racial discrimination in the [jury selection] procedures ...” Batson, 476 U.S. at 85, 106 S.Ct. 1712 (citation omitted).
The Supreme Court acknowledged that “[b]y compromising the representative quality of the jury, discriminatory selection procedures make juries ready weapons for officials to oppress those accused individuals who by chañéis are numbered among unpopular or inarticulate minorities.” Id. at 87 n. 8, 106 S.Ct. 1712 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).
In Batson, our highést court specified that “the Equal Protection Clause forbids the prosecutor to challenge potential jurors solely on account of their race or on the assumption that [those] jurors as a group will be unable impartially to consider the State’s case against a[defendant from the same ethnic group].” Id. at 89, 106 S.Ct. 1712. Yet that is precisely what the prosecutor did in this case when he smeared an entire race of people, expressly assuming that Native American people are unwilling to adhere to “our laws,” and thereby implying that they are unfit for jury duty. In fact, the prosecutor’s actions spoke even louder than his words: he excised every single Native American from the jury pool, leaving an “inexorable zero” sum total of Native American jurors.4
*347In resolving claims of improper juror exclusion, it is not at all uncommon for courts to consider whether the “inexorable zero” phenomenon is in effect. Although not specifically labeled as such, the “inexorable zero” factor carries considerable weight when courts consider Batson challenges. In McClain, 217 F.3d at 1224, we held that “the fact that all blacks in the venire pool were struck raises an inference of discrimination.” We also noted that “the seriously disproportionate exclusion of blacks from the jury venire is powerful evidence of intentional race discrimination.” Id. at 1223 (citing Batson, 476 U.S. at 93, 106 S.Ct. 1712). See also Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 331, 123 S.Ct. 1029, 154 L.Ed.2d 931 (2003) (recognizing that the respective percentages of excluded racial groups is relevant).
The state courts in this case gave absolutely no thought to the fact that the state’s peremptory challenges were used to remove every prospective Native American juror from the jury panel. The courts simply did not conduct the inquiry or make the findings contemplated by the mixed motives rubric.
As noted in the majority opinion, once the defendant has established that the exercise of a peremptory challenge was motivated, at least in part, by considerations of race or ethnicity, the burden shifts to the prosecution to prove that it would have exercised the peremptory challenge even in the absence of racial or ethnic motivations. Cf. Mt. Healthy City School Dist. Bd. of Education v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274, 287, 97 S.Ct. 568, 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977); Village of Arlington Heights v. Metro Housing Develop. Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 270 n. 21, 97 S.Ct. 555, 50 L.Ed.2d 450 (1977); Gattis v. Snyder, 278 F.3d 222, 233 (3d Cir.2002); Jones v. Plaster, 57 F.3d 417, 421 (4th Cir.1995).
The mixed motives analysis parallels the pretext analysis elucidated in Batson, as the purpose of both is to isolate the true reason for the exercise of the peremptory *348challenge. See Howard, 986 F.2d at 30 (noting that the outcome of the mixed motives case rested on whether the prosecutor “could sustain his burden of showing that he would have exercised his challenges solely for race-neutral reasons.”) (emphasis in the original); cf. Lewis v. Lewis, 321 F.3d 824, 830-31 (9th Cir.2003) (“It is in the third step ... that the court reaches the real meat of a Batson challenge.” It is at this stage that the court “explores] the possibility that facially race-neutral reasons are a pretext for discrimination.”) (citation omitted); Howard, 986 F.2d at 27 (stating that “[d]ual motivation analysis ... may supplement ... ‘pretext’ analysis”).
In conducting the mixed motives/Batson pretext analysis, the court is to consider “all the evidence on the record.” Riley v. Taylor, 277 F.3d 261, 279 (3d Cir.2001) (en banc); see also Lewis, 321 F.3d at 830 (commending a review of the record); Howard, 986 F.2d at 30 (remanding for application of mixed motives analysis on the record).
The fact that the reason given for the exercise of a peremptory challenge “corresponds to a valid for-cause challenge will demonstrate its race-neutral character.” Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352, 363, 111 S.Ct. 1859, 114 L.Ed.2d 395 (1991). On the other hand, the articulation of “a basis for a peremptory challenge that results in the disproportionate exclusion of members of a certain race” may be evidence of pretext, see id., especially as it approaches the “inexorable zero.” See McClain, 217 F.3d at 1224 (“the fact that all blacks in the venire pool were struck raises an inference of discrimination.”) (citation omitted).
Finally, the reason given to support the exercise of the peremptory challenge must be “related to the particular case to be tried.” Batson, 476 U.S. at 98, 106 S.Ct. 1712; see also United States v. Thompson, 827 F.2d 1254, 1257 (9th Cir.1987).
It is the obligation of the trial court, when ruling upon a Batson challenge, to gauge the persuasiveness of the race-neutral reasons offered for the exercise of the peremptory challenge. At bottom, this determination is an assessment of the prosecutor’s credibility. Miller-El, 537 U.S. at 339, 123 S.Ct. 1029. “Credibility can be measured by, among other factors, the prosecutor’s demeanor; by how reasonable, or how improbable, the explanations are; and by whether the proffered rationale has some basis in accepted trial strategy.” Id.
[I]f a review of the record undermines the prosecutor’s stated reasons, or many of the proffered reasons, the reasons may be deemed a pretext for racial discrimination. Similarly, a comparative analysis of the struck juror with empaneled jurors is a well-established tool for exploring the possibility that facially race-neutral reasons are a pretext for discrimination. After analyzing each of the prosecutor’s proffered reasons, our precedent suggests that the court should then step back and evaluate all of the reasons together. The proffer of various faulty reasons and only one or two otherwise adequate reasons, may undermine the prosecutor’s credibility to such an extent that a court should sustain a Batson challenge.
Lewis, 321 F.3d at 830-31 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).
It is unfortunate, but true, that the state courts engaged in no analysis of the record or of the prosecutor’s proffered race-neutral reasons for the peremptory challenges. We cannot ignore that dereliction. See Howard, 986 F.2d at 30 (remanding the case because the state court did not place the dual motivation burden upon the prosecutor). After hearing the prosecu*349tor’s explanation, the state trial court ruled: “All right. The Court finds there is sufficient justification to support the peremptory challenges. With regard to Miss Rindels, my understanding of what [the prosecutor] said is that-one of them is at least that she worked for the tribe, not because she was one of the tribe, but she worked for the tribe. That’s entirely different, other than the fact if she’s [I]ndian, if she is.”5
In discussing the peremptory challenge of Juror Rindels, the California Court of Appeal listed the other reasons provided by the prosecutor: 1) “[s]he was pretentious ... and self-important”; 2) “[s]he was emotional about the system 3)[h]er daughter had been molested by her father ... indicative of something of a dysfunctional family”; 4) she was “somewhat unstable, fairly weak and somebody who ... would be easily swayed by the defense.” (emphasis in the original).
The Court of Appeal determined that the reasons given by the prosecutor “are race-neutral.” However, that is only half of the inquiry under a mixed motives analysis. The other half is whether the prosecutor credibly demonstrated that he would have exercised the peremptory challenge despite the race-based statements that informed his decisions. This inquiry was never pursued by the trial court or by the appellate court. There was no consideration of the record as a whole, no comparative analysis with other jurors, no examination of the relevance of the proffered reasons to the case, and no recognition of the “inexorable zero” factor.6
In denying habeas relief, the majority opinion relies upon the deference owed to the rulings of state courts on habeas review. However, “deference does not imply abandonment or abdication of judicial review.” Miller-El, 537 U.S. at 340, 123 S.Ct. 1029. This case is akin to that considered by the Third Circuit in Riley. In that case, the court recognized that”[d]ef-erence in a Batson case must be viewed in the context of the requirement that the state courts engage in the three-step Bat-son inquiry.” 277 F.3d at 286.
As is true in this case, in Riley “the state courts failed to examine all of the evidence to determine whether the State’s proffered race-neutral explanations were pretextual. Not only is there no indication on the record that the hearing judge engaged in the required analysis, but there is no indication that the [state appellate court] did so ...” Id.
As is also true in this case, “[t]he omission of the crucial step of evaluating the State’s proffered explanations in light of all the evidence can be gleaned by the absence of the word ‘pretext’ in both the opinion of the hearing judge and in the opinion of the [appellate court]. Nor is there any language in either opinion that suggests, whatever the words used, that either court recognized the nature of the analysis it was required to undertake.” Id. (emphasis added).
As did the Third Circuit, I recognize that no magic words are required to reflect *350that the proper analysis has been performed. Nevertheless, the fact remains that there are no words in the California Court of Appeal decision reflecting that it performed a pretext analysis or a mixed motives analysis. As judicial officers, we have a solemn obligation to fulfill the promise of Batson: a jury selection process untainted by the specter of racism. Because neither the trial court nor the appellate court engaged in the inquiry required by Batson, the state court’s “finding that the prosecutor did not purposefully discriminate in exercising peremptory challenges against Jurors [Rindels, Law-ton, and Smithfield] was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the state court proceeding.” McClain, 217 F.3d at 1224 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).
Rather than denying the habeas petition in this case, I would follow the lead of Howard, a case relied upon by the majority, and grant a conditional writ requiring the state court to conduct a proper mixed motives analysis. See 986 F.2d at 30. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.

. As note 2 of the majority opinion explains, a Wl-ieeler challenge is the state law equivalent of a challenge under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S.. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986).

. In a ruling of first impression, the majority holds that the mixed motives rubric commonly used in Title VII cases should be imported into the Batson inquiry when prima facie race-based peremptory challenges are also attributed to race-neutral reasons. Op. at 339-40. Assuming, without deciding, that a mixed motives analysis applies, the California Court of Appeal did not conform its ruling to that rubric.

. I also take issue with the stated notion that only one of the Native American prospective jurors was challenged for an ethnic-based reason. The prosecutor's statements regarding the Native American culture's disregard for "our laws” pervaded the exercise of his per-emptoiy challenges against Native Americans. Even the California Court of Appeal acknowledged that such an "impermissible group bias” runs afoul of the federal Constitution.

.As the majority opinion recognizes, at least implicitly, courts considering Batson issues often analogize to cases under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. See Batson, 476 U.S. at 94 and n. 18, 106 S.Ct. 1712. See also Howard v. Senkowski, 986 F.2d 24, 27 and n. 2 (2d Cir.1993), a case mentioned prominently in the majority opinion; United States v. Forbes, 816 F.2d 1006, 1010 (5th Cir.1987). Mixed motives analysis is frequently utilized in deciding cases brought under Title VII. See Desert Palace, Inc. v. Costa, 539 U.S. 90, 92, 123 S.Ct. 2148, 156 L.Ed.2d 84 (2003).
In Capaci v. Katz & Besthoff, Inc., 711 F.2d 647, 660 (5th Cir.1983), the court explained the impetus for the passage of Title VII. "It is now well recognized that employment deci*347sions cannot be predicated on mere 'stereotyped' impressions about the characteristics of [the prospective employees] ... It precludes treatment of individuals as simply components of a racial, religious, sexual or national class ...." (citation omitted); cf. Batson, 476 U.S. at 97, 106 S.Ct. 1712 (forbidding the exclusion of prospective jurors based upon assumptions about the ethnic group to which the jurors belong).
In Title VII jurisprudence, the practice of excluding all individuals of a particular ethnic group is referred to as the phenomenon of the “inexorable zero.” See Ass'n Against Discrimination in Employment, Inc. v. City of Bridgeport, 647 F.2d 256, 265 (2d Cir.1981); see also NAACP v. Town of East Haven, 70 F.3d 219, 225 (noting that “the district court ... must also consider the fact of the inexorable zero.”) (internal quotation marks omitted); United States v. Gregory, 871 F.2d 1239, 1245 (4th Cir.1989); Capaci, 711 F.2d at 662 (noting that the court “differ[ed] with the defendant’s suggestion that zero is just a number.” Rather, “the courts have been particularly dubious of attempts by employers to explain away the inexorable zero when the hiring columns are totalled”) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted); EEOC v. Atlas Paper Box Co., 868 F.2d 1487, 1501 n. 21 (6th Cir.1989) (Cook, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part); EEOC v. O & G Spring and Wire Forms Specialty Co., 38 F.3d 872, 879 (7th Cir.1994) (noting that "[t]he district court flagged the bottom line in the case: the inexorable zero.”) (internal quotation marks omitted); Peightal v. Metropolitan Dade County, 26 F.3d 1545, 1555 n. 14 (11th Cir.1994); Hammon v. Barry, 826 F.2d 73, 75 n. 3 (D.C.Cir.1987) (recognizing that the case of Johnson v. Transportation Agency, Santa Clara County, California, 480 U.S. 616, 107 S.Ct. 1442, 94 L.Ed.2d 615 (1987) involved the "inexorable zero” factor). Existence of the "inexorable zero” in Title VII cases raises the judicial eyebrow. See Capaci, 711 F.2d at 662 (describing the "particular dubiousness” of the court in response to efforts to explain away the “inexorable zero”) (citing Int'l Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 342 n. 23, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 52 L.Ed.2d 396 (1977)).

. The record reveals that this finding by the district court was clearly erroneous. The prosecutor referenced Miss Rindels as a "[NJative American [] employed by the tribe.” (emphasis added).

. The Court of Appeal’s lapse was even more egregious for jurors Lawton and Smithfield, because the trial court did not even discuss the prosecutor’s proffered reasons for excluding them from the jury. The Court of Appeal acknowledged the prosecutor's stereotypical “underlying assumption that Native Americans as a group are 'anti-establishment,' ” but did not evaluate the "race-neutral” reasons against the race-based backdrop of the prosecutor’s stereotypical remarks.