Aldridge Currie v. Neil McDowell

825 F.3d 603, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 10362, 2016 WL 3192396
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJune 8, 2016
Docket13-16187
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 825 F.3d 603 (Aldridge Currie v. Neil McDowell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Aldridge Currie v. Neil McDowell, 825 F.3d 603, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 10362, 2016 WL 3192396 (9th Cir. 2016).

Opinions

OPINION

BERZON, Circuit Judge:

This is the latest case arising out of a jury selected by David Brown, a prosecutor with a history of unconstitutional race-based peremptory strikes. We previously held that Brown violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause when he struck three African-American women from the jury of petitioner Aldridge Currie’s first trial. See Currie v. Adams, 149 Fed.Appx. 615 (9th Cir. 2005). At the retrial resulting from that opinion, the trial judge found that Brown had violated Batson again by striking three African-American prospective jurors.

This case arises out of Currie’s second retrial, in which Brown was the prosecutor once again. In this third attempt to prosecute Currie, Brown removed one African American juror via peremptory strike. His stated reasons for striking this juror were all flawed — each reason was either unreasonable, demonstrably false, or applied just as well to the non-black jurors Brown allowed to remain on the jury. Because “[t]he ‘Constitution forbids striking even a single prospective juror for a discriminatory purpose,’ ” Foster v. Chatman, 578 U.S. -, -, 136 S.Ct. 1737, 1747, 195 L.Ed.2d 1 (2016) (quoting Snyder v. Louisiana, 552 U.S. 472, 478, 128 S.Ct. 1203, 170 L.Ed.2d 175 (2008)), we hold that Cur-rie’s habeas petition should be granted.

I. Background

A. The Batson Framework

This case, like its predecessor cases involving Brown and Currie, centers around the proper application of the Supreme Court’s decision in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). Batson held that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause prohibits prosecutors from using a peremptory challenge against a juror on the basis of that juror’s race. See id. at 89, 106 S.Ct. 1712. This prohibition is enforced via Batson’v: three-step process.

In the' first Batson step, “the defendant must make out a prima facie case by showing that the totality of the relevant facts gives rise to an inference of discriminatory purpose.” Johnson v. California, 545 U.S. 162, 168, 125 S.Ct. 2410, 162 L.Ed.2d 129 (2005) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Second, if that prima facie case is made out, the state must offer “permissible race-neutral justifications for the strike[].” Id. Third, the trial court must decide whether, given all of the relevant facts, the defendant has proven purposeful discrimination. See Crittenden v. Ayers, 624 F.3d 943, 958 (9th Cir. 2010).

At this third step, the defendant has the burden of proving purposeful discrimination by a preponderance of the evidence. See id. (citing Batson, 476 U.S. at 98, 106 S.Ct. 1712). The defendant need not prove that all of the prosecutor’s race-neutral reasons were pretextual, or even that the racial motivation was “determinative.” Snyder v. Louisiana, 552 U.S. at 485, 128 S.Ct. 1203 (citing Hunter v. Un[606]*606derwood, 471 U.S. 222, 228, 105 S.Ct. 1916, 85 L.Ed.2d 222 (1985)). Instead, to prove a Batson violation, the defendant must demonstrate that “race was a substantial motivating factor” in the prosecutor’s use of the peremptory strike. Cook v. LaMarque, 593 F.3d 810, 815 (9th Cir. 2010).

B. Prior Proceedings

On July 12, 1995, Currie and a man named Santos Maldonado got into an argument about a gun Maldonado had acquired from a mutual acquaintance. Later that day, while Maldonado and his girlfriend were sitting in Maldonado’s car, Currie approached Maldonado and asked how much methamphetamine he would sell Currie for $100.00. After Maldonado answered, Currie said that he had money around the corner and left. He returned and shot Maldonado in the neck, then robbed Maldonado of a gold chain, money, and methamphetamine. Maldonado later died due to his injury. Currie is African American, while Maldonado was of Hispanic descent.

Brown successfully prosecuted Currie in California Superior Court, obtaining Cur-rie’s conviction for second degree murder, attempted robbery, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. That conviction was affirmed on direct appeal, but we granted habeas relief after finding that Brown had exercised a peremptory challenge in violation of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). Currie v. Adams, 149 Fed.Appx. 615 (9th Cir. 2005) (“Currie I”). Shortly before we ruled in that case, the Supreme Court held that Brown had committed a Batson violation in a separate case, Johnson v. California, 545 U.S. 162, 125 S.Ct. 2410, 162 L.Ed.2d 129 (2005).

The state retried Currie in May 2009, with a new judge presiding and Brown again serving as prosecutor. During voir dire, the judge declared a mistrial due to another Batson violation by Brown. The court commenced a second retrial with a new jury (again with Brown as the prosecutor). It is that second retrial at issue in today’s case.

C. Jury Selection

Currie’s Batson claim centers on the striking of a prospective juror named Jones, an African-American woman. Jones made it through the first round of jury selection, during which the court questioned and excused jurors for hardship. The court then described “the nature of the charges” to the jurors who remained, including Jones, and gave those jurors a pair of questionnaires to fill out. After the jurors had completed the questionnaires, they were read the Information against Currie and voir dire began.

During voir dire, Jones was questioned by both the court and Brown; defense counsel did not question her. The court asked Jones only two questions: whether her relationships with people who have used drugs would prevent her from keeping an open mind during the trial, and whether there was anything else the parties should know about her. Jones answered that she would be able to “keep an open mind,” and that there was nothing else the parties needed to know.

Brown’s questioning of Jones was slightly longer. The jury questionnaires had asked whether the fact that Currie had been arrested and “charged with these crimes” caused Jones to be “biased against him” or think he “is probably guilty of something.” Jones had answered “no” to each question, writing in the comments section to the question “no I don’t know what his [sic] is accused of and he is presumed not guilty until proven.” Following up on the questionnaire, Brown asked Jones on voir dire “how do you feel about [607]*607the presumption of innocence?” Jones replied “I can’t conclude that he’s guilty or not, because I don’t know the first thing of the case.”

Brown asked Jones several more questions about the presumption of innocence and the prosecutor’s burden, and then moved on to other jurors.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
825 F.3d 603, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 10362, 2016 WL 3192396, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/aldridge-currie-v-neil-mcdowell-ca9-2016.