Shirley v. Yates, No. 13-16273 (9th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CasePetitioner, convicted of first and second degree robbery, appealed the district court's denial of his petition for habeas relief. The court concluded that the state court acted contrary to clearly established law when it based its prima facie analysis on the discredited, pre-Johnson v. California standard articulated by the California Supreme Court in People v. Box. In this case, it was appropriate for the district court to determine de novo whether petitioner had raised an inference of racial bias; the court also agreed with the district court that, contrary to the state court’s conclusion, petitioner did raise an inference of discrimination more than sufficient to meet his “minimal” burden at Batson Step One; the fact that a prosecutor peremptorily strikes all or most veniremembers of the defendant’s race – as was the case here – is often sufficient on its own to make a prima facie case at Step One; if a prosecutor testifies both to his general jury selection approach and that he is confident one of these race-neutral preferences was the actual reason for the strike, this is sufficient circumstantial evidence to satisfy Batson Step Two; this evidence alone will seldom be enough at Step Three to overcome a prima facie case unless the prosecutor has a regular practice of striking veniremembers who possess an objective characteristic that may be clearly defined; and, in this case, petitioner's prima facie case was sufficient to carry his burden of showing by a preponderance of the evidence that the strike of an African American juror was motivated in substantial part by race. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded.
Court Description: Habeas Corpus. The panel reversed the district court’s denial of relief on California state prisoner Darryl Shirley’s claim under Batson v. Kentucky in his habeas corpus petition challenging his conviction for first-degree burglary of an unoccupied residence and second-degree robbery of a sandwich shop, and remanded with instructions to grant the writ unless the state elects to retry Shirley within a reasonable amount of time. The panel held that because the California Court of Appeal acted contrary to clearly established law when it based its Batson Step One prima facie analysis on a discredited standard, it was appropriate for the district court to determine de novo whether Shirley had raised an inference of racial bias. The panel agreed with the district court that contrary to the state court’s conclusion, Shirley did raise an inference of discrimination sufficient to meet his burden at Step One. Addressing the narrow set of cases in which the prosecutor cannot remember the reason why he struck veniremembers, the panel held that if the prosecutor testifies both to his general jury selection approach and that he is confident one of these race-neutral preferences was the actual reason for the strike, this is sufficient circumstantial evidence to satisfy the state’s burden of production at Batson Step Two. The panel held that this evidence alone will seldom be SHIRLEY V. YATES 3 enough at Step Three to overcome a prima facie case of racial discrimination unless the prosecutor has a regular practice of striking veniremembers who possess an objective characteristic that may be clearly defined. The panel held that the district court incorrectly found that the prosecutor had not met the state’s burden of production at Step Two, but that the district court clearly erred in denying Shirley’s claim at Step Three on the basis of a juror comparison and its view that the reason the prosecutor proffered could have been a good reason for striking black venireperson R.O. The panel observed that the district judge did not determine whether the prosecutor had offered circumstantial evidence sufficient to support the inference that he actually struck R.O. for the reason proffered. The panel wrote that in a case in which the prosecutor does not recall his actual reason for striking the jury in question, a prosecutor’s stated vague approach to jury selection provides little or no probative support for a conclusion at Step Three that he struck her for the reason he proffered. The panel wrote that a comparative juror analysis does not support the state’s claims in this case. The panel therefore concluded that Shirley’s prima facie case was sufficient to carry his burden of showing by a preponderance of the evidence that the strike of R.O. was motivated in substantial part by race. 4 SHIRLEY V. YATES
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on March 21, 2016.
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