Cobb v. Thurman

906 F. Supp. 545, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17759, 1995 WL 703750
CourtDistrict Court, C.D. California
DecidedOctober 24, 1995
DocketNo. SACV 94-663-GLT (EE)
StatusPublished

This text of 906 F. Supp. 545 (Cobb v. Thurman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, C.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cobb v. Thurman, 906 F. Supp. 545, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17759, 1995 WL 703750 (C.D. Cal. 1995).

Opinion

ORDER ADOPTING REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

TAYLOR, District Judge.

Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(C), the Court has reviewed the petition and all of the records and files herein. The Court adopts the findings and recommendations of the United States Magistrate Judge attached hereto and orders that judgment be entered denying the petition.

[546]*546IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the Clerk shall serve copies of this Order, the reports and recommendations, and the Judgment herein by United States mail on all parties.

FINAL REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION OF UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

EDWARDS, United States Magistrate Judge.

This Final Report and Recommendation and the attached Report and Recommendation are submitted to the Honorable Gary L. Taylor, United States District Judge, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636 and General Order 194 of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

On October 6, 1995, the Clerk filed Notice Of Filing Of Magistrate Judge’s Second Supplemental Report And Recommendation, which was served on the parties, together with a copy of the report and recommendation.

Petitioner has timely filed objections to the Second Supplemental Report and Recommendation. Having carefully considered the objections, the magistrate judge finds no good reason set forth for changing the recommendation.

Petitioner contends that the holding in Turner v. Marshall, 63 F.3d 807 (9th Cir. 1995), mandates that this Court grant the petition. The magistrate judge disagrees. In Turner, the Ninth Circuit remanded the case to the district court after finding that “the state court erred in failing to inquire into the prosecutor’s reasons for the peremptory challenges.” 63 F.3d at 814. In this case, and as set forth in the magistrate judge’s original report and recommendation filed May 23, 1995 (at pages 5-8), the state court did inquire into the prosecutor’s reasons for the peremptory challenges in ruling on defense counsel’s motions. Although the prosecutor couched his argument, and the trial court couched its ultimate conclusion, as being that petitioner did not even make a prima facie showing, the record is clear that the prosecutor treated the court’s inquiry as one requiring him to state race-neutral reasons for his challenge, and the prosecutor clearly did so.

Petitioner also argues that he should not have been expected to make a record at trial to prove that the prosecutor’s peremptory challenges were racially motivated. Petitioner bases this contention on the fact that the California courts do not apply the analysis applied by the 9th Circuit, and so it would have been futile for him to make an offer of proof. This, however, ignores the fact that most Batson errors occur because the trial court erred in not following controlling authorities. The purpose of making a record is to give the trial court a chance to avoid error. Petitioner did not do so. That the alleged Batson error violated federal authorities rather than state authorities was irrelevant.

IT IS THEREFORE THE FINAL RECOMMENDATION that the Court approve these reports and recommendations and enter judgment denying the petition.

Dated: October 20, 1995.

SECOND SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION OF UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

This second supplemental report and recommendation is submitted to the Honorable Gary L. Taylor, United States District Judge, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636 and General Order 194 of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

1. Introduction.

On May 23, 1995, the magistrate judge filed a report and recommendation recommending that the petition herein be denied. A substantial issue in the petition was whether petitioner’s rights under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986) were denied at trial when the prosecutor exercised peremptory challenges to excuse several minority jurors. The report and recommendation noted that the prosecutor provided race-neutral explanations for the excusáis and concluded that:

[547]*547no other circumstances exist which ... raise any inference that the prosecutor used the peremptory challenges to excuse the jurors on the basis of their race,

(report and recommendation filed May 23, 1995, p. 7-8.)

Based on this conclusion, it was recommended that the petition be denied.

Petitioner filed objections to the report and recommendation setting out in great detail what he considered to be “other circumstances” that raised the inference that the prosecutor did give pretext reasons for dismissing the jurors and actually dismissed them based on their race. Specifically, petitioner filed objections on June 2, 1995, comparing the characteristics of white jurors that the prosecutor did not excuse with the characteristics of minority jurors that the prosecutor excused. Because it appeared that jurors having identical characteristics were excused or not excused depending on their race, the magistrate judge ordered further briefing on the Batson issue. Respondent filed his brief on June 23, 1995, and petitioner replied on July 14, 1995.

On August 16, 1995, the magistrate judge filed a supplemental report and recommendation. Noting that this is a close case, the report and recommendation concluded that:

while the excusal of the black juror and one of the Hispanic jurors was justified by the reasons the prosecutor stated on the record, the excusal of the other 2 Hispanic jurors was not.

(supplemental report and recommendation filed August 16, 1995, p. 9.)

Having concluded that the portions of the transcripts cited by petitioner showed that the prosecutor’s reasons for excusing 2 Hispanic jurors were pretextual in that white jurors having the same characteristics were not excused, the magistrate judge concluded that a Batson error had occurred and recommended that the petition be granted.

On August 29, 1995, respondent filed objections to the supplemental report and recommendation. The objections cite a new Supreme Court case, Purkett v. Elem, 514 U.S. -, 115 S.Ct. 1769, 131 L.Ed.2d 834 (1995). Although the issue remains a close one, the magistrate judge now concludes that the petition should be denied for reasons that follow.

2. Discussion.

Much of respondent’s objections are based on the magistrate judge’s acceptance of petitioner’s use of comparative analysis to determine whether the prosecutor’s stated reasons for excusing minority jurors were pretextual. Respondent argues at length that, in essence, it is unfair to test the California trial court’s Batson analysis using a comparative analysis approach when California case law specifically does not require it.

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906 F. Supp. 545, 1995 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17759, 1995 WL 703750, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cobb-v-thurman-cacd-1995.