United States v. Thomas

303 F.3d 138, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 18178
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit·Decided September 4, 2002·No. 00-1593·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

303 F.3d 138

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee,
v.
Karzekel THOMAS, Justis Bosh, a/k/a Jeffrey A. Bosch, Desmond Burns, Carvin Loussaint, Khasim Marcelle, Defendants,
James L. Johnson and Ozem Thomas, Defendants-Appellants.

Docket No. 00-1593(L).

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: February 27, 2001.

Decided: September 04, 2002.

John L. Smith, Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Alan Vinegrad, United States Attorney, and Cecil C. Scott, Assistant United States Attorney, on the brief), for Appellee.

Bernard H. Udell, Brooklyn, NY, for Appellant Johnson.

Richard Ware Levitt, New York, NY, for Appellant Thomas.

Before KEARSE, JACOBS, KEITH*, Circuit Judges.

JACOBS, Circuit Judge.

James Johnson and Ozem Thomas appeal from judgments of conviction and sentences entered following a jury trial in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Korman, Ch.J.). Defendants raise a number of appellate issues, but their primary argument is that the prosecutor denied them equal protection of the law by using peremptory challenges to strike prospective jurors Emma Franklin and Dorothy Campbell. See Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). The defendants, who are African-American, timely objected during jury selection that the challenges to those jurors, also African-American, were discriminatory in violation of Batson. Magistrate Judge Chrein, who presided over the selection proceedings, denied the Batson claim. After trial, the defendants moved in the district court for a new trial on the claimed Batson error, but Chief Judge Korman ruled that the objection was forfeited because the defendants had failed to appeal the magistrate's Batson rulings immediately to the district judge, and because the defendants had declared themselves satisfied when, prior to the swearing of the jury, Judge Korman asked counsel whether the jury was satisfactory.

We agree with Judge Korman that the purposes of Batson are best served if appeals from Batson rulings made by a magistrate judge are taken immediately to the district judge; but we conclude that, as the law then stood, the Batson claim was not forfeited in this case. Defense counsel promptly and assiduously raised Batson before the magistrate judge during the jury selection process; the law imposed no clear obligation to seek immediate appeal of those rulings; and the jurors at issue had been discharged and replaced when the trial judge asked if the jury (as finally constituted) was satisfactory.

Reaching the merits of the Batson claim, we conclude that the findings are insufficient. Accordingly, we remand for supplemental findings pursuant to the procedure used in United States v. Jacobson, 15 F.3d 19, 21-22 (2d Cir.1994). Upon receipt of these findings, we will reconsider the sufficiency of the defendants' Batson claim as well as their other appellate arguments concerning the jury instructions, sufficiency of the evidence, and sentencing.

BACKGROUND

Ozem Thomas and James Johnson were tried on numerous federal counts arising out of four robberies or attempted robberies in Brooklyn. Upon consent, Magistrate Judge Simon A. Chrein presided over jury selection.

During those proceedings, the government used its peremptory challenges to strike from the jury one Latino and four African-Americans of whom two — Emma Franklin and Dorothy Campbell — are the subject of the Batson challenges raised below and on appeal.

The government explained its strike of Ms. Franklin on the ground that her son had been convicted on a weapons charge and was in jail:

I would say this woman's child is incarcerated on weapons charges, and this case involves two particular defendants who face — at least with respect to Ozem Thomas — face multiple weapons charges, and the defendant Johnson also faces a weapons charge.

So, there is a real similarity between the predicament, in terms of the weapon charge, I expect in this case, which I don't expect in every case: That the defendants' mothers are going to be a significant presence during the course of the trial.

And knowing that, and knowing that a mother also faces — is going to be seeing mothers in the audience who also have children, their children are incarcerated, it's not a knee-jerk reaction just to the fact the child is incarcerated. But in this particular case, I expect the mothers to be a presence, and even to be witnesses in the case.

G.A. at 122-23. The magistrate credited this explanation and denied the Batson motion. But the defense renewed its attack when the government decided not to strike a white juror, Ruby Leureux, whose son also had been convicted of a weapons offense:

Ms. Leureux had the same situation [as Ms. Franklin]. She wasn't challenged on that basis by the government as a peremptory. It's exactly the same situation. She had a son who was arrested for a crime of robbery, I believe, with a weapon, and she is also a mother of a child. Her situation is exactly the same as Ms. Franklin's. However, the government challenged Ms. Franklin on that basis.

I'm arguing to the Court, on the basis of these challenges, they appear to be pretextual. And you can put aside that issue with [Ms. Franklin]. She doesn't have anything about her that would cause the government any pause of having her as a juror, other than her race. She already served on a jury. Her answers were forthright, she had no problems of any kind. She didn't respond, to any of the questions that the Court asked, in terms of any problems any jurors may have.

Id. at 180-81. The magistrate denied the renewed Batson motion, stating that "[t]he record speaks for itself." Id. at 182.

As to the government's peremptory strike of Ms. Campbell, the prosecutor responded as follows to the Batson motion of the defense:

I thought the tone that [Ms. Campbell] took when she was answering many of the Court's questions evinced a flippancy, almost a kind of casual disregard for the proceedings.

G.A. at 176. Evidently, the magistrate judge did not share that reaction: "I can't say if that is true or not." Id. The magistrate observed:

One more thing about ... [Ms. Campbell]. She is not unique, she is one of several jurors, but she also was one of the people who forgot [to mention during general examination her] prior jury service.

Id. at 179. Later, the magistrate judge added that there was no perceptible pattern of discriminatory strikes, because the government waived opportunities for peremptory challenges when black jurors were seated:

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United States v. Thomas, 303 F.3d 138, 2002 U.S. App. LEXIS 18178 (2d Cir. 2002).

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