Brown v. Jones

Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant’s habeas petition that challenged his murder conviction on ground that prosecutor improperly used peremptory challenge to excuse one of two African American jurors from jury after juror had indicated that he was familiar with crime scene. State court could properly have found that defendant failed to establish prima facie case of race discrimination under Batson, where: (1) there was no evidence of pattern of prosecutor striking African Americans from jury or evidence of prosecutor’s use of disproportionate number of strikes against African Americans; (2) other factors surrounding dismissal of juror were unremarkable; and (3) instant use of peremptory challenge was clearly attributable to race-neutral reason for said use, i.e. juror’s familiarity of crime scene, where peremptory challenge was made immediately upon juror’s statement that he was familiar with crime scene. Fact that prosecutor used peremptory challenge without questioning instant juror while prosecutor questioned other potential jurors did not cast doubt on race-neutral basis for peremptory challenge, where instant juror separated himself from other jurors by his familiarity with crime scene.