SUPREME COURT DENIES WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS ON BATSON CLAIM

The question in Thaler v. Haynes is not whether a judge can deny a Batson motion based upon a juror’s demeanor, not viewed by the judge, but rather whether a Federal Court can grant a writ of habeas corpus when a state court judge denied a Batson motion, based upon demeanor, when the judge had not been present to view the prospective juror’s demeanor.

A Batson motion claims that the opposing party is making peremptory challenges based upon race. Each party at a trial is allowed to make a certain number of challenges to perspective jurors without giving a reason. The challenged can be for almost any reason except race. When a party thinks that the opposing party is making a peremptory challenge base on race it make a motion to have the opposing party justify its challenge but the party making the motion must make a prima facie showing first. Then the judge asks the party challenging the juror to justify its challenge.

But when the matter comes up in a Federal habeas as all matters that come up when state court convictions are challenged in a Federal court by a writ of habeas corpus the defendant has not only got to prove that he/she is right, but more importantly he/she must prove that the state court violated a Federal law that is “clearly established.” Under Supreme Court precedent a Federal law is only “clearly established” if the Supreme Court has previously unequivocally ruled on the matter. Thus the state court could be wrong but the Federal courts will uphold the state court decision if the there is not a Supreme Court decision unequivocally opposed to the state court ruling.

Anthony Cardell Haynes was convicted in Texas state court for the murder of a police officer. Two different judges presided over different parts of his trial. One presided over the selection o the jury and another presided over the Batson motion. The defense counsel made the necessary prima facie showing that the prosecution’s peremptory challenge was base on race. The prosecutor justified the challenge by claiming that the juror’s demeanor showed that she was not serious about being a juror. The judge denied the motion even though the judge had not been present when the peremptory challenge was not made and the judge had not seen the juror’s demeanor.

The question before the Federal Courts on habeas was not whether the trial court was right in denying the defense Batson motion, but rather whether when the court denied the motion it was violating a clearly established Supreme Court ruling. The Supreme Court found no clear prior ruling was violated and therefore it reversed the lower court grant of habeas corpus.