CLARK, Chief Judge:
Dalton Prejean, a Louisiana prisoner sentenced to die for the 1977 slaying of a Louisiana State Trooper, appeals from the federal district court's denial of his application of habeas corpus relief. Finding that Prejean has not established a violation of his constitutional rights, we affirm the judgment of the district court.
I. BACKGROUND FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
In the early morning hours of July 2, 1977, Dalton Prejean, a seventeen year old black youth, left a local night club after a full night of drinking and socializing in neighborhood taverns. Prejean, accompanied by his brother Joseph and two companions, had driven only a short distance in his car when he was pulled over by a Louisiana State Trooper for a traffic violation. The tropper, Donald Cleveland, first asked the four young men to exit the vehicle; he then ordered all but Joseph Prejean to return to their seats. The three complied, but when Trooper Cleveland pushed Joseph Prejean up against the ear and began to search him, Dalton Prejean withdrew a .38 caliber revolver from under the car seat and got out of the car. Approaching Cleveland with the gun concealed, Dalton Prejean fired two shots at close range, striking Cleveland. Trooper Cleveland died from the gunshot wounds to his neck and chest. The four young men fled the scene but were apprehended several hours later.
Dalton Prejean was indicted by a Louisiana grand jury on the charge of first degree murder. Defense counsel urged a pretrial motion to suppress “any and all” of Prejean’s prior adjudications of juvenile delinquency. The trial court ruled that evidence of Prejean’s juvenile record was inadmissible, and ordered the evidence suppressed “insofar as this instant proceeding is concerned, but no further.”1 The State immediately sought a writ of certiorari. The Louisiana Supreme Court denied the writ application, stating that the trial court’s evidentiary ruling was correct under state law.
The trial was transferred from Lafayette Parish to Ouachita Parish because of the intense pretrial publicity that the case had generated. In a three-day bifurcated trial, an all-white jury of twelve found Prejean guilty and recommended a sentence of death. The trial judge, bound by Louisiana law to accept the jury’s recommendation, sentenced Prejean to death. Thereafter the judge compiled a Uniform Capital Sentence Report, obtained a confidential “sentence investigation report” from the State Department of Corrections, and submitted both to the Louisiana Supreme Court.
On direct appeal, the Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and the capital sentence. State v. Prejean, 379 So.2d 240 (La.1979), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 891, 101 S.Ct. 253, 66 L.Ed.2d 119 (1980). Prejean next submitted an application for post-conviction relief in the state trial court, urging several new constitutional claims. The court denied all requested relief. Prejean thereafter applied to the Louisiana Supreme Court for Supervisory Writs and a stay of execution. The applications were denied. State ex rel. Prejean v. Blackburn, 397 So.2d 517 (La.1981).
Prejean immediately submitted an application for federal habeas corpus relief and sought a stay of the impending execution. [1094]*1094The federal district court granted a temporary stay, enabling Prejean to present to the Louisiana Supreme Court a previously unexhausted claim. See State ex rel. Prejean v. Blackburn, 407 So.2d 1189 (La.1981). Prejean’s fully exhausted petition thus raised for consideration by the federal district court eleven discrete claims of constitutional deprivation. Without holding an evidentiary hearing, the district court examined each claim, found that each lacked merit, and dismissed the application. Prejean v. Blackburn, 570 F.Supp. 985 (W.D.La.1983). On appeal, Prejean now raises five claims of constitutional dimension: first, that the death sentence imposed in this instance violates due process because it was affirmed by the Louisiana Supreme Court on the basis of nonrecord prejudicial information; second, that the execution of Prejean for a crime committed at age seventeen would violate an eighth amendment right protecting minors from execution; third, that the Louisiana Supreme Court’s inadequate proportionality review of Prejean’s sentence violated the eighth amendment; fourth, that Prejean, a black youth convicted of killing a white police officer, was condemned to die as a result of intentional racial discrimination; and fifth, that the district court erred in refusing to grant an evidentiary hearing on Prejean’s claim that the prosecutor used peremptory challenges deliberately and systematically to exclude blacks from the petit jury. We granted a stay of execution in order to enable our plenary consideration of this appeal.
II. CAPITAL SENTENCING IN LOUISIANA
A. Louisiana law
Under Louisiana law, a death sentence may be imposed only after the penalty jury considers “any mitigating circumstances” and finds beyond a reasonable doubt that the murder was attended by at least one statutorily defined “aggravating circumstance.” La.Code Crim.Pro.Ann. arts. 905.3 — 5 (West Supp.1982); State v. Culberth, 390 So.2d 847, 850 (La.1980). In the instant case, the aggravating circumstance found by the jury was that Preje-an’s murder victim was a “peace officer engaged in his lawful duties.” See id. art. 905.4(b). The verdict must be unanimous. La.Code Crim.Pro.Ann. art. 905.6 (Supp. 1982). When, as here, the jury unanimously agrees on a sentence of death, its recommendation is binding on the trial judge. Id. art. 905.8. The trial judge therefore had no choice but to sentence Prejean to death in accordance with the jury’s recommendation. See State v. Prejean, 379 So.2d 240, 247 (La.1979).
Pursuant to Louisiana’s statutory capital sentencing scheme, the Louisiana Supreme Court performs an automatic and mandatory review of each case in which a death sentence has been assigned. La.Code Crim.Pro.Ann. art. 905.9 (Supp.1982). The Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction in criminal cases extends only to questions of law; the court cannot enter findings of fact. La. Const. Art. V, § 5(c) (1979). The court has adopted the following procedures “to satisfy constitutional criteria for review:”
Review Guidelines. Every sentence of death shall be reviewed by this court to determine if it is excessive. In determining whether the sentence is excessive the court shall determine:
(a) whether the sentence was imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice or any other arbitrary factors, and
(b) whether the evidence supports the jury’s finding of a statutory aggravating circumstance, and
(c) whether the sentence is disproportionate to the penalty imposed in similar cases, considering both the crime and the defendant.
La.S.Ct.Rule 28 § 1; see La.Code Crim.Pro. Ann. art. 905.9 (Supp.1982). As an aspect of its “proportionality review,” the court performs at a minimum a district-wide comparison of the capital sentences imposed in “similar” cases. La.S.Ct.Rule 28 § 4; see, e.g., State v. (Elmo Patrick) Sonnier, 379 So.2d 1336, 1362 (La.1979).
[1095]*1095III. THE DUE PROCESS CLAIM
In conducting its appellate review of Prejean’s sentence, the Louisiana Supreme Court received, considered, and used two postsentence reports that had been submitted to it by the trial judge. Neither the confidential sentence investigation report, compiled by an employee of the Louisiana Department of Corrections, nor the Uniform Capital Sentence Report, compiled by the trial judge himself, was admitted at trial. Prejean contends that, in affirming the death sentence in partial dependence on two inherently unreliable postsentence reports, the Louisiana Supreme Court denied him due process of law. Prejean’s objection rests on two separate yet related grounds: first, that the court’s consideration of both reports enabled it to conduct its appellate review of the arbitrariness, proportionality, and overall excessiveness of the jury’s verdict based upon information about which the jury had not known; and second, that in considering the confidential sentence investigation report the court relied on information that was never tested in the forum of the adversarial process.2
A. Two Postsentence Reports
After the jury had sentenced Prejean to death and an appeal had been taken, the trial judge submitted to the Louisiana Supreme Court two sentencing reports. The procedure by which the Supreme Court received and considered the two reports — the Uniform Capital Sentence Report and the confidential sentence investigation report— is governed by Louisiana Supreme Court Rule 28. Section three of the Rule provides, in pertinent part:
Section 3. Uniform Capital Sentence Report; Sentence Investigation Report.
(a) Whenever the death penalty is imposed, the trial judge shall expeditiously complete and file in the record a Uniform Capital Sentence Report (see Appendix “B”). The trial court may call upon the district attorney, defense counsel and the department of probation and parole of the Department of Corrections to provide any information needed to complete the report.
(b) The trial judge shall cause a sentence investigation to be conducted and the report to be attached to the uniform capital sentence report. The investigation shall inquire into the defendant’s prior delinquent and criminal activity, family situation and background, education, economic and employment status, and any other relevant matters concerning the defendant. This report shall be sealed, except as provided below.
(c) Defense counsel and the district attorney shall be furnished a copy of the completed Capital Sentence Report and of the sentence investigation report, and shall be afforded seven days to file a written opposition to their factual contents. If the opposition shows sufficient grounds, the court shall conduct a contradictory hearing to resolve any substantial factual issues raised by the reports. In all eases, the opposition, if any, shall be attached to the reports.
La.S.Ct.Rule 28 § 3; see La.Code Crim.Pro. Ann. art. 905.9 (Supp.1982).
1. The Uniform Capital Sentence Report
In the instant case, the trial judge compiled the UCSR apparently with the assistance of the defense counsel, the district attorney, and an agent of the state department of probation and parole.3 The UCSR [1096]*1096noted Prejean's inferior intelligence range and deficient educational background, his employment record, and certain details concerning Trooper Cleveland, the murder victim. The report listed three juvenile offenses for which Prejean previously had been committed, moreover indicating that two psychological tests had been performed on Prejean during these juvenile commitments, and that an explanation of the results was contained in the confidential sentence investigation report. The UCSR furthermore contained the judge’s opinion that the jury had not been influenced by any arbitrary factors, that the sentence was probably not disproportionate, and that, considering (among other factors) the “propensities and history of the offender,” the sentence was appropriate.
Prejean’s counsel received a copy of the UCSR4 and submitted written objections to it, alleging that “the conclusion and certain specific portions of the uniform capital sentencing report are patently in error.”5 State R. I, 132. Prejean’s counsel attached to the objections the last four pages of Prejean’s statement confessing to the crime. The full confession was included in the confidential sentence investigation report; it had been excluded from the jury by virtue of a pretrial motion to suppress. Counsel also attached to his objections, as “exhibits,” several documents that traced Prejean’s wayward course through the Louisiana Division of Probation and Parole.
2. The Confidential Sentence Investigation Report
The confidential sentence investigation report was prepared by the same probation and parole agent of the Louisiana Department of Corrections who prepared “part A” of the UCSR. The report first recited a chronology of Prejean’s juvenile record, including Prejean’s three escapes from custody, two burglaries, one theft, a “false firearms” offense, truancy charges, and the first degree murder of a taxicab driver committed during the course of an armed robbery. In an effort to furnish details concerning Prejean’s “adult” record, the probation officer attached to her confidential report a copy of Prejean’s confession to the murder of Trooper Cleveland. As noted above, this confession had been suppressed from the criminal trial.
The confidential sentence investigation report considered Prejean’s “social history” in great detail. Some measure of the information contained in the confidential report’s discussion of Prejean’s social history can be gleaned from the exhibits that defense counsel submitted as attachments to his objections to the UCSR. For example, the confidential sentence investigation report contained excerpts of three psychiatric evaluations performed in 1972, 1974, and 1976. Defense counsel himself submitted, as attachments to his objections to the UCSR, the full text of the latter two evaluations. For the most part, however, the agent’s confidential sentence investigation [1097]*1097report consists of the agent’s personal observations and impressions of Prejean’s family life and immediate social environment. These personal impressions and observations can only be found in the agent’s confidential sentence investigation report.
The record does not reflect whether Prejean’s counsel was ever furnished a copy of the confidential postsentence investigation report.6 Prejean’s counsel has not represented that he was not furnished a copy. The State has not argued that Prejean has waived the right to object to the report’s contents. See generally Gardner v. Florida, 430 U.S. 349, 361-62, 97 S.Ct. 1197, 1206-07, 51 L.Ed.2d 393 (1977); Estelle v. Williams, 425 U.S. 501, 96 S.Ct. 1691, 48 L.Ed.2d 126 (1976). We, therefore, presume that the trial judge performed his duty and furnished a copy of the sentence investigation report to Prejean’s counsel as required by the Louisiana Supreme Court’s rule, and, since the Court reported none, that counsel did not submit to the Louisiana Supreme Court any objections to the report’s contents.
IV.
Prejean relies on Gardner v. Florida, 430 U.S. 349, 97 S.Ct. 1197, 51 L.Ed.2d 393 (1977) and Presnell v. Georgia, 439 U.S. 14, 99 S.Ct. 235, 58 L.Ed.2d 207 (1978) as support for his due process argument. Gardner held that a Florida defendant was denied due process of law when the trial judge imposed the death sentence based in part on confidential presentence report information which the defendant had no opportunity to deny or explain. 430 U.S. at 364, 97 S.Ct. at 1207. The Court based its holding on the defendant’s interest in the reliability of any information used in determining whether he should live or die. Id. at 359, 97 S.Ct. at 1205. The Court held that this interest outweighed the state’s interest in keeping secret information which was important to the sentencing process. Id. In Presnell the Supreme Court refused to allow a reviewing court to piece together elements of a crime different from the one formally charged. Presnell had no notice either in the indictment, in the instructions to the jury, or elsewhere, that the state was relying on his rape of a child to supply the bodily injury element necessary to make his kidnapping of that child a, capital offense. Despite the fact that parts of the record might support the various elements, the Supreme Court held that the defendant was entitled to have the jury conclude that each element be found as part of a single offense actually charged and instructed.
The Court’s use of the reports in reviewing Prejean’s death sentence did not violate the principles established in Gardner or Presnell. The Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed Prejean’s conviction on precisely the charge and proof that was before the jury. State v. Prejean, 379 So.2d 240, 242-49 (La.1979). It did so partly on the basis of reviewing the evidence and the verdict of the jury. In this phase of its work, the Supreme Court considered only what was considered by the jury. It also separately conducted a broader statutory review that considered the imposition of capital punishment on this defendant as it related to other similar cases in which the penalty had been imposed and in which it had been withheld.
Prejean, was afforded an adequate opportunity to deny or explain all factual information given to the Supreme Court in the reports. A sufficient challenge could provoke a fact hearing. Any opposition was required to be preserved in the record. The defendant’s interest in reliability as defined by the Gardner Court, is not affected by whether the information be kept from the sentence imposing court or jury. Rule 28, id. 430 U.S. at [1098]*1098360-61, 97 S.Ct. at 1206-07 fully protects the defendant’s interest in reliability.
To require that the Louisiana Supreme Court not use the information in its sentence review violates the state’s interest in having as much pertinent information as possible available during the “selection” phase of a capital sentencing procedure. The Louisiana Supreme Court has a legitimate interest in understanding the background histories of persons sentenced to capital punishment. This interest is not in conflict with the court’s obligation to review the jury’s decision. The court has an obligation to consider (1) whether the sentence was imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice, or other arbitrary factors; (2) whether the evidence supports the finding of a statutory aggravating circumstance; and (3) the proportionality of the sentence. La.Code Crim.Pro.Ann. art. 905.9 (Supp.1982). In carrying out this review, the court explicitly stated that the record evidence supported the finding of an aggravating circumstance and the imposition of the death penalty despite evidence of mitigating circumstances presented to the jury. 379 So.2d at 247-49. In its separate appellate review function, it also found that the sentence was not disproportionate, considering both the crime and the defendant. Id. at 248-49 and n. 3. Its discussion of the two reports was supplemental to its discussion of the record evidence. Neither Prejean’s interest in the reliability of the information contained in the reports nor his interest in a review of the jury verdict for arbitrariness was violated by this procedure.
V. THE CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT CLAIM
Prejean contends that the execution of a youth for an offense committed while he was under the age of eighteen violates the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the eighth amendment, as it transgresses “the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society,” Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86, 101, 78 S.Ct. 590, 598, 2 L.Ed.2d 630 (1958). In support of this claim, he cites the special concern and treatment for juvenile offenders reflected by juvenile court systems in America; the constitutional requirement established in Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 102 S.Ct. 869, 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982) that sentencing authorities in capital cases consider age as a mitigating factor; the decline in the past half century in the number of teenagers executed in the United States; and other evidence tending to demonstrate that both nationally and internationally, the trend is toward elimination of capital punishment for youthful offenders.
No court has ruled that in all cases and under all circumstances, the execution of those who commit capital offenses while under the age of eighteen constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court had the opportunity to consider this question in Eddings v. Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 102 S.Ct. 869, 71 L.Ed.2d 1 (1982), but decided the case on other grounds. In Eddings, the Court held that the state courts improperly refused to consider as a mitigating circumstance the violent family background of a youth who committed murder at the age of sixteen. The Court stated: “Just as the chronological age of a minor is itself a factor of great weight, so must the background and mental and emotional development of a youthful defendant be duly considered in sentencing.” 455 U.S. at 116, 102 S.Ct. at 877.
Nothing in society’s standards of decency compel more than consideration of an eighteen year old’s youth as a mitigating factor. A survey of state capital punishment statutes provides us with “evidence of the country’s present judgment,” Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, 593, 97 S.Ct. 2861, 2866, 53 L.Ed.2d 982 (1977), concerning the acceptability of the death penalty for such youthful offenders. Of the thirty-nine death penalty statutes now in existence, only six prohibit execution of offenders who committed capital crimes while under age eighteen.7 Twenty-two [1099]*1099other state death penalty statutes provide that age is a mitigating factor to be considered in the sentencing process;8 all others are obliged by Eddings to do the same. The current judgment among state legislatures thus strongly indicates that capital punishment can be imposed on youthful offenders.
VI. PROPORTIONALITY REVIEW
Prejean also argues that the Louisiana Supreme Court did not conduct a sufficient proportionality review of his case. Specifically, he contends that because the Court limited its review to three dissimilar cases9 from two districts, the review was inadequate.
This argument is meritless. Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure Article 905.9.1 requires the Louisiana Supreme Court to review all first degree murder cases within the same district being reviewed. The Louisiana Supreme Court considered the relevant first degree murder convictions in the district where the offense occurred and where the trial was held. This procedure satisfies constitutional requirements. See Pulley v. Harris, — U.S. -, 104 S.Ct. 871, 79 L.Ed.2d 29 (1984); Williams v. Maggio, 679 F.2d 381 (5th Cir.1982) (en banc), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 103 S.Ct. 3553, 77 L.Ed.2d 1399 (1982); Baldwin v. Blackburn, 653 F.2d 942 (5th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 950, 102 S.Ct. 2021, 72 L.Ed.2d 475 (1982). Certainly the first person convicted of murdering a peace officer in the line of duty cannot negate an otherwise valid capital sentence because his crime is then unique.
VII. DISCRIMINATORY APPLICATION
Prejean contends that the district court erred in refusing to hear statistical evidence on his claim that he was sentenced to death because of his race and the race of his victim. Prejean claims this error violated both his eighth amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment and his fourteenth amendment right to equal protection of the laws. He argues that he tendered proof which would establish that Louisiana juries act on the basis of race in imposing the death sentence against blacks who have killed a white person. The district court properly rejected Prejean’s tender of statistical proof without an evidentiary hearing.
In Smith v. Balkcom, 660 F.2d 573, modified, 671 F.2d 858, (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 882, 103 S.Ct. 181, 74 L.Ed.2d 148 (1982), the court rejected, without a hearing, a similar attack on the Georgia death penalty statute. The proffer of statistical evidence in Smith was predicated on the unsupported assumption that all nonracial variables were equally distributed throughout the reported homicides in Georgia, which formed the basis for the analysis. Smith held that unless aggravating circumstances and all other nonracial variables had been accounted for, a racial analysis of the raw data would not be of sufficient evidentiary value. According to Smith, the tender of statistical evidence [1100]*1100must account for nonracial variables so as to render the statistics “so strong that the results [would] permit no other inference but that they are the product of racially discriminatory intent or purpose.” 671 F.2d at 859.
Smith also relied on the requirements stated in our prior statistical evidence decision in Spinkellink v. Wainwright, 578 F.2d 582, 612-16 (5th Cir.1978). In Spinkellink, we said that the proof must establish specific acts evidencing intentional or purposeful discrimination “against the petitioner" on the basis of race. Id. at 614 n. 40 (quoted in Smith, 660 F.2d at 585 (emphasis supplied in Smith)). We found the tenders in both Spinkellink and Smith to be based merely on condusory assumptions of discrimination and wanting m proof of intentional racial discrimination against those particular petitioners. In both cases, the sentencing discrepancies were explama- ,, ^ , TT * ,, ble on nonracial grounds. However, the ,. , . a -¿i x n ,.i x , dicta m bmith suggested that statistical evidence might be adduced which would compel the conclusion that a particular defendant’s conviction was the product of intentional racial discrimination. 671 F.2d at 859. It is that dicta that we treat with now.10
The following summary of Prejean’s detailed description of the tender he sought to make is helpful to understanding its deficiencies. Prejean introduced his Memorandum of Support of Habeas Corpus Relief with the conclusion that his statistical evidence would establish a pattern and practice of discrimination in the imposition of Louisiana’s death penalty; that the evidence would distinguish between the number of homicides committed by whites and the number committed by blacks; that it would offer a breakdown of the type of homicide committed (e.g., felony murder, acquaintance murder, etc.); that it would delineate the race of the victim, and that it would present “other salient characteristics of the offense and offender” which may be available. According to Prejean, “after controlling for other factors” this information would indicate that particularly with youthful offenders, the race of the defendant and the race of the victim determines the sentence imposed.
Although Prejean admitted the findings were incomplete, he asserted that the pre-]iminary findings were g0 gtark that it wag already clear that further refinement of the data would not ch the conclusion he drew that the death alt ¡n Louisiana ig currentl bei a pplied in a racially dis. . • , ,. ■, n , . criminatory manner, particularly when iu- , « , , . , , vemle defendants are involved,
Prejean stated that his statistics had been gleaned from all homicides reported by the State of Louisiana to the F.B.I. from 1976-1980. The statistical breakdown indicated that of 2527 homicides in which the race of the victim was known, 19% of those sent?»fed *> die under the Louisiana statute kllled black PeoP!e> whlle 81% of those sentenced to death killed whites.
Prejean focused on all homicides statewide in which a black offender was accused of killing a white victim. Only 9% of the Louisiana homicides he included fell into this category; yet, 37% of those sentenced to death under the current Louisiana statute were blacks convicted of killing whites. [1101]*1101From this, Prejean deduced that black offenders who kill white victims have a 200% greater chance of being sentenced to death than white offenders who kill white victims. Furthermore, he observed that no white offenders had been sentenced to death for killing a black victim.
Prejean stated that the disparity was even greater for black youths who murdered a white victim. In such situations, he says black youths have the same chance of receiving a death sentence as do white adults, while no white youth has been sentenced to death under the current Louisiana statute.
Prejean stated his tender also would include nationwide statistics to show racial discrimination in sentencing black youths was consistent with the pattern found in Louisiana. Blacks comprise 59% of the currently condemned juveniles in the United States. According to Prejean’s tender, since 1864, 40 blacks, as compared to 11 whites, below the age of 18, are reported to have been executed. Finally, Prejean offers to present expert witnesses who will validate these statistical allegations and present more detailed and refined analyses of the information to rebut any inference that nonracial factors may cause these sentencing disparities.
Prejean’s tender contains a broad spectrum of statistics and figures. He draws not only on the entire State of Louisiana, but also on the nation and even as far back as 1864. The probative value and the relevancy of such far ranging statistics were properly challenged by the district court. The Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure requires a proportionality review of all first degree murder cases after January 1, 1976 within the district in which the sentence was imposed. La.Code Crim.Proc.Ann. art. 905.9.1 § 4(b)(i) (West Supp.1983). Proof of discriminatory application of capital sentencing likewise should be limited to that same district.
Parishes, and the judicial districts they compose, are individualistic. We take judicial notice that the political and economic make-up, and educational background of citizens vary from one district to the next. Such characteristics identify a parish with certain views, beliefs and practices. That one or more districts might produce juries that persistently discriminate against black defendants in violation of their sworn duty as jurors does not reflect the actions of juries impaneled in another district whose citizens return jury verdicts which cannot be so faulted. If this were not so, proportionality review could not be constitutionally restricted to individual districts. Looking at the statistics compiled for an entire state could improperly disparage convictions rendered fairly and properly by diligent judges and juries. Thus, to test whether discriminatory application of Louisiana’s valid capital sentencing statutes has been shown by statistical proof so strong as to permit no other inference than intentional racial discrimination, the statistical base must, at least initially, deal with numbers within the boundaries of the district where the sentence was imposed.
Prejean’s tender offered no statistical evidence to suggest that this jury in this district was more inclined to impose the death penalty because he was black and his victim white. As in Smith v. Balkcom, the statewide and nationwide data selected for the statistical study cannot justify a leap to the conclusion of discriminatory intent or purpose concerning this jury or this district. As previously indicated in our discussion on proportionality review, supra § VI, three first degree murder convictions have been returned since January 1976 in both the district where the offense occurred and the district where the sentence was imposed. None of these resulted in a death sentence. An inference of improper racially discriminatory behavior by the jury cannot be compelled by any amount of expert conjecture.
Regardless of the fact that Prejean has not made a sufficiently compelling showing of racial discrimination by juries in this district, his tender, even looking at statistics for the entire State of Louisiana, falls short of the standard established by the [1102]*1102dicta in Smith. Prejean’s tender, although more complete than the statistical showings in either Smith or Spinkellink, and purporting to offer experts that will chink all the cracks, on its face still fails to account sufficiently for nonracial variables.
Assuming Prejean’s own claims for his proof are accurate, his statistical evidence still would not establish that this jury in this case intentionally imposed the death penalty on Prejean because of his race and not because of his crime. Despite the string of percentages and statistics suggesting possible racial disparity in capital sentencing of black youths, Prejean has not suggested that the evidence he would submit was sufficiently refined to allow only one inference: that for murders of peace officers engaged in their lawful duties, juries in these two districts of Louisiana recommend death sentences only, or more often, against blacks, young or old, whose victims were white than for non-white victims. Nor does Prejean suggest that his expert possessed any statistics that would yield an inference to rebut the presumption that the jurors in this case — duly sworn to discharge their official duty fairly — recommended death because Prejean’s crime of murdering a peace officer was sufficiently reprehensible, not because he was black.
Prejean has not presented any statistics that show, or that even suggest, a white defendant who killed a black or white peace officer while engaged in lawful duties has or would receive a sentence less severe than death. It is this aspect of Prejean’s crime — the killing of a peace officer — to which the tendered statistical showing of discriminatory application failed to speak. Without such a showing, Prejean’s tender, like those offered in Smith and Spinkel-link, must remain a conclusory general allegation that the death penalty is being administered discriminatorily to punish the killing of white persons by blacks.
We focus on this aspect of Prejean’s crime because it is one of nine aggravating circumstances expressly listed by the Louisiana legislature as constituting sufficient reason for a jury to impose the death penalty. The Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure states that the fact “the victim was a fireman or peace officer engaged in his lawful duties” is to be considered an aggravating circumstance of the crime. Article 905.4(b). When such a crime is committed a jury has little room to act upon its subjective intents. The jury here was not presented with a crime which might or might not fall under the rubric of an offense “committed in an especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel manner.” La.Code Crim.Pro. art. 905.4(g). Offenses within this category of aggravating circumstances are subject to an individual’s or group’s subjective intents and biases, including racial prejudice. Because the killing of a peace officer while engaged in lawful duties involves an objective application of the death sentence, a statistical showing, to meet the compelling standard of Smith v. Balkcom, must speak specifically to that circumstance. Prejean’s tender does not offer to make such a showing.
Prejean’s tender told the court no more than that the statistical proof would show among all of those sentenced to die for every type of murder in Louisiana, youthful blacks and blacks who killed white victims made up a disproportionate number. Prejean’s self-serving conclusion that his experts will tie together the loose ends of an incomplete analysis simply does not suffice to constitute that compelling indication of discrimination which warrants an evidentiary hearing. The insubstantiality of such a general tender is precisely the sort of statistical tender held inadequate in Smith v. Balkcom.
Given the dearth of specific, relevant statistical proof in these districts that any expert would have to work from and the unspecific tender made to show intentional racial discrimination in a peace officer killing of the sort this jury tried, we cannot fault the district court’s refusal to conduct an evidentiary hearing in this case.
VIII. RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN JURY SELECTION
Prejean contends that the federal district court erred in refusing to grant an [1103]*1103evidentiary hearing on the claim that the State systematically excluded blacks from the petit jury. Prejean’s sixth and fourteenth amendment claim, if meritorious, would require habeas corpus relief from both the conviction and the sentence. We therefore proceed to consider Prejean’s contention. See generally La.Code Crim. Pro.Ann. art. 905.1(B); State v. (Elmo Patrick) Sonnier, 379 So.2d 1336, 1372 (La. 1979) (on rehearing 1980). Cf. Vela v. Estelle, 708 F.2d 954, 966 (5th Cir.1983), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 104 S.Ct. 736, 79 L.Ed.2d 194 (1984).
These facts in the trial record are uneon-troverted. In the course of the jury selection process, the prosecutor exercised nine peremptory challenges. Four were used to exclude blacks. As a result, Prejean was tried before an all-white jury, with one black alternate juror. Immediately after the twelve white jurors were selected, Pre-jean moved to quash the panel. The next day the trial court heard arguments on the motion. Defense counsel explained that, due to the change in venue, he was unable to offer direct evidence of systematic exclusion of blacks from petit juries:
Your Honor, as you know, we’re here in Monroe. I do not have the records available to me, of any Lafayette cases that I would have to look at to show what apparently is required by this case, which is systematic exclusion of blacks over a period of time. My only prima facie evidence that I can offer, at this time, is the fact that the District Attorney did pre-emptorily challenge four (4) black persons — not for cause. All of which were qualified to serve on the jury. The net result is that we now have a twelve (12) person jury, all of which are white.
The trial court denied the motion to quash, and refused to allow Prejean the opportunity to present evidence on the claim at a later date. Following the conviction and death sentence, counsel moved for a new trial but did not urge the juror discrimination argument at that time.
On direct appeal, the Louisiana Supreme Court found that the trial court’s denial of the motion to quash was proper. State v. Prejean, 379 So.2d at 243-44. In seeking state postconviction relief, Prejean again raised the discrimination claim and proffered evidence that of the two peremptory challenges that the State had exercised in Prejean’s Lafayette Parish proceeding (which was subsequently transferred to Ouachita Parish), one had been used to exclude a black individual. The state court determined that this showing was insufficient to entitle the claim to any further consideration, and accordingly denied relief.
In his petition for federal habeas corpus relief, counsel alleged only that in the instant proceedings the prosecutor had deliberately used the peremptory challenges so as to exclude blacks, and that Prejean was prevented from showing the systematic exclusion because the state trial court that convicted him had declined to grant a continuance. In a memorandum in support of his federal habeas corpus petition, Prejean alleged that racial prejudice is a well-known fact of life in Ouachita Parish, where "[o]pen, flagrant, unsophisticated, purposeful discrimination against blacks has been the long time pattern____”, quoting Ausberry v. City of Monroe, 456 F.Supp. 460, 463 (W.D.La.1978) appeal dismissed, 616 F.2d 565 (5th Cir.1980). Preje-an invited the district court to take notice of the “proven racially discriminatory practices of the authorities and citizenry generally within the parish,” and to adjust the holding of Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759 (1965), in order to allow a constitutional claim based not upon systematic exclusion, but rather upon the asserted invidious “racial polarization” of the parish. The district court declined so to modify Sw'ain, concluding that Prejean’s conclusory allegations and vague proffer were insufficient to state a claim for relief. Prejean v. Blackburn, 570 F.Supp. at 991.
In Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759 (1965), the Supreme Court set forth the required components of a valid claim of discrimination in [1104]*1104a state prosecutor’s use of peremptory challenges:
[Wjhen the prosecutor in a county, in case after case, whatever the circumstances, whatever the crime and whoever the defendant or the victim may be, is responsible for the removal of Negroes who have been selected as qualified jurors by the jury commissioners and who have survived challenges for cause, with the result that no Negroes ever serve on petit juries, the Fourteenth Amendment claim takes on an added significance .... in these circumstances ... it would appear that the purpose[s] of the peremptory challenge are being perverted. If the State has not seen fit to leave a single Negro on any jury in a criminal case, the presumption protecting the prosecution may well be overcome.
Id. at 223-24, 85 S.Ct. at 837-38 (citations omitted). The Court concluded that, in order to “pose the issue” of invidious racial discrimination in the selection of jurors, “the defendant must show the prosecutor’s systematic use of peremptory challenges against Negroes over a period of time.” Id. at 227, 85 S.Ct. at 839. The burden thus placed on the claimholder is extremely onerous, and has been vigorously criticized.11 Nonetheless, it remains a necessary hurdle in the course of establishing a valid constitutional claim. See Willis v. Zant, 720 F.2d 1212, 1217-21 (11th Cir. 1983); United States v. McLaurin, 557 F.2d 1064, 1076-77 (5th Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1020, 98 S.Ct. 743, 54 L.Ed.2d 767 (1978); United States v. Carlton, 456 F.2d 207, 208 (5th Cir.1972); see also Sonnier v. Maggio, 720 F.2d at 406-07.
We agree with the district court that the constitutional claim that Prejean sought a hearing to develop is legally insufficient to establish the sort of systematic exclusion of blacks that would entitle him to relief under Swain. The simple fact that the prosecutor exercised his peremptory challenges in the instant case to exclude all blacks from the Ouachita Parish jury panel is inadequate, under Swain to pose a constitutional issue. Swain also teaches that allegations of historic parish-wide discrimination cannot substitute for the necessity of a particularized showing that the prosecution has engaged in the systematic, invidious use of peremptory challenges. Accordingly, Prejean has failed to state a claim of constitutional significance. Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. at 222-28, 85 S.Ct. at 836-40; United States v. Carlton, 456 F.2d at 207-08. Cf. Gray v. Lucas, 710 F.2d 1048, 1061 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 104 S.Ct. 211, 77 L.Ed.2d 1453 (1983) (holding that facts alleged, taken as true, failed to state a claim under the eighth amendment). But cf. Willis v. Zant, 720 F.2d at 1217-21 (holding that a Georgia petitioner under a sentence of death had stated a claim under Swain such as to entitle him to an evidentiary hearing); see also Winick, Prosecutorial Peremptory Challenge Practices in Capital Cases: An Emperical Study and A Constitutional Analysis, 81 Mich.L.Rev. 1 (1982) (suggesting that Swain’s strict rule be reevaluated in the context of the capital case).
IX. CONCLUSION
Dalton Prejean’s right to due process of law was not violated when the Supreme Court of Louisiana utilized evidence contained in the uniform capital sentence report and in confidential sentence investigation report in the course of affirming the death sentence. Prejean’s claims for relief from the sentence of death (1) because of his age at the time of the crime, (2) insufficiency of the Louisiana court’s proportionality review, and (3) the failure of the federal habeas corpus court to accord Prejean a hearing on his claims of racial discrimination in jury selection procedures and in the [1105]*1105imposition of the death penalty are without merit. The judgment of the district court is
AFFIRMED.