Williams v. Runnels

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 4, 2006
Docket04-55830
StatusPublished

This text of Williams v. Runnels (Williams v. Runnels) 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
Williams v. Runnels, (9th Cir. 2006).

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

TERRY DARNELL WILLIAMS,  Petitioner-Appellant, No. 04-55830 v.  D.C. No. CV-01-03301-SVW D. L. RUNNELS, Warden; BILL LOCKYER, OPINION Respondents-Appellees.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Stephen V. Wilson, District Judge, Presiding

Argued March 10, 2005 Submitted December 28, 2005 Pasadena, California

Filed January 5, 2006

Before: Edward Leavy, Susan P. Graber, and Consuelo M. Callahan, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Callahan

41 WILLIAMS v. RUNNELS 43

COUNSEL

Maria E. Stratton, Federal Public Defender, and Michael Tanaka, Deputy Federal Public Defender, of Los Angeles, California, for the petitioner.

Bill Lockyer, Attorney General of California, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Brad D. Leve- son, Deputy Attorney General, and Stephanie A. Miyoshi, 44 WILLIAMS v. RUNNELS Deputy Attorney General, of Los Angeles, California, for the respondents.

OPINION

CALLAHAN, Circuit Judge:

Appellant, Terry Darnell Williams, alleges that during his state trial for second-degree robbery, he made a prima facie showing of discrimination under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), when he objected to the prosecutor’s use of three of four peremptory challenges to excuse African-Americans. We hold that the district court, not having the guidance of the Supreme Court’s opinions in Johnson v. California, 125 S. Ct. 2410 (2005), and Miller-El v. Dretke, 125 S. Ct. 2317 (2005), failed to appreciate the import of Williams’ showing of statis- tical disparity. Accordingly, we reverse and remand.

I

Williams, an African-American, was charged in Los Ange- les Superior Court with second-degree robbery. The State alleged that Williams and his accomplice, James E. Roberts, robbed a mini-mart at gunpoint. Williams’ defense was that he had been with his fiancee at the time of the robbery and that another person had accompanied Roberts.

Williams was tried with Roberts in March 1998. When the court indicated that counsel could make peremptory chal- lenges, the prosecutor stated that he would accept the jury. Defense counsel proceeded to excuse potential jurors and the prosecutor then exercised four peremptory challenges. After the fourth challenge, defense counsel objected, stating:

At this time I would make a motion under Wheeler, your honor. People have exercised four peremptories WILLIAMS v. RUNNELS 45 after passing, I believe five or six times. Three of the four peremptories that have been exercised, the last three have all been African Americans. The first one was a woman, last two have been men.1

The dialogue continued as follows:

[The court]: I don’t understand the significance of your comment that originally he passed five times because one of the jurors originally that was exer- cised by the people was on the panel that was origi- nally accepted, so I don’t understand that point of your argument.

[Defense counsel]: Oh, because I think it’s essen- tially to see what kind of racial makeup of the jury is and to move from that. Ms. [B.] was originally one — the other ones getting on, they have all been excused. We only have one African American sitting on the panel now.

[The court]: Let me take a look at my notes.

[Prosecutor]: Let me first correct a misstatement of fact. People have exercised five peremptory chal- lenges, first one was to a white male and an attorney.

[The court]: No. You’ve only exercised four.

[Defense counsel]: That’s right.

[Prosecutor]: Why do I have five slips here? 1 People v. Wheeler, 583 P.2d 748 (Cal. 1978), is California’s counter- part to Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986). A Wheeler motion is con- sidered the procedural equivalent to a challenge made under Batson. Paulino v. Castro, 371 F.3d 1083, 1088 n.4 (9th Cir. 2004). 46 WILLIAMS v. RUNNELS [The court]: I haven’t the slightest idea.

[Prosecutor]: Who exercised the attorney, [S.R.]?

[Defense counsel]: You did.

[Prosecutor]: Who exercised a peremptory as to [W.B.]?

[Defense counsel]: That was you.

[Prosecutor]: I have the wrong column. I misspoke. I’m sorry.

[The court]: At this point I’m not going to find a prima facie Wheeler violation. However, I suppose if there are future uses of peremptories by the prose- cution as to the subject matter group, then I suppose you could renew your application at that point in time.

[Prosecutor]: So the record is clear on this issue, Ms. [B.], juror number one, indicated that she had a son who —

[The court]: You don’t need to give an explanation because I’m not finding a prima facie.

[Prosecutor]: I understand that. I wanted, however, the record squeaky clean on this.

[The court]: I don’t think it needs to be squeaky clean.

[Prosecutor]: I will defer to the court’s decision.

After this exchange, peremptory challenges continued. The defense excused three jurors and the prosecutor passed twice. WILLIAMS v. RUNNELS 47 The court then called in another twenty-two prospective jurors. On the next day, defense counsel excused another seven potential jurors. The prosecutor excused one juror and passed seven times. The defense did not renew its Wheeler challenge. The case proceeded to trial and the jury returned a verdict of guilty. Williams was sentenced to a term of thirty- four years to life.

Williams’ conviction was affirmed by the California Court of Appeal in an unpublished opinion. One of the three issues he raised on appeal was that the trial court had erred in deny- ing his Wheeler motion.2 In rejecting Williams’ Wheeler/ Batson claim, the appellate court held that, “from all the cir- cumstances of the case,” Williams had not shown “a strong likelihood that such persons are being challenged because of their group association rather than because of any specific bias.” In addition, the appellate court indicated that because a Wheeler motion calls upon the trial judge’s personal obser- vations, it reviewed the trial judge’s decision with consider- able deference, and because the record suggested grounds upon which the prosecutor might reasonably have challenged the jurors, it affirmed. The California Supreme Court denied Williams’ petition for review.

Williams filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Central District of Califor- nia. He alleged, inter alia, that the prosecutor had improperly used his peremptory challenges to eliminate African- Americans from the jury. The district judge denied relief con- cluding that Williams had “not come forward with sufficient evidence to show a reasonable inference of purposeful dis- 2 The other major issues raised on appeal were (1) whether the trial court erred in denying Williams’ motion for mistrial when jurors witnessed an altercation, involving a key defense witness outside the courtroom, and (2) whether the trial court erred in instructing the jury that it could disregard the testimony of the defense alibi witness because Williams had not dis- closed the witness to the prosecution thirty days before trial. 48 WILLIAMS v. RUNNELS crimination arose solely on the basis of statistics that would have required the trial judge to perform the entire Batson analysis at the time the objection was made.”

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Related

Avery v. Georgia
345 U.S. 559 (Supreme Court, 1953)
Alexander v. Louisiana
405 U.S. 625 (Supreme Court, 1972)
Washington v. Davis
426 U.S. 229 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Batson v. Kentucky
476 U.S. 79 (Supreme Court, 1986)
Hernandez v. New York
500 U.S. 352 (Supreme Court, 1991)
Purkett v. Elem
514 U.S. 765 (Supreme Court, 1995)
United States v. Julio Cesar Vasquez-Lopez
22 F.3d 900 (Ninth Circuit, 1994)
Delbert Paulino v. R.A. Castro, Warden
371 F.3d 1083 (Ninth Circuit, 2004)
Johnson v. California
545 U.S. 162 (Supreme Court, 2005)
Miller-El v. Dretke
545 U.S. 231 (Supreme Court, 2005)
People v. Wheeler
583 P.2d 748 (California Supreme Court, 1978)
Holloway v. Horn
355 F.3d 707 (Third Circuit, 2004)
Tolbert v. Page
182 F.3d 677 (Ninth Circuit, 1999)
Wade v. Terhune
202 F.3d 1190 (Ninth Circuit, 2000)

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