Eppie McClain, Jr. v. J. Soto

MEMORANDUM

Eppie McClain, Jr., a California state prisoner, appeals the denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas corpus petition. McClain argues that the state court’s rejection of his challenge under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 , 106 S.Ct. 1712 , 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), in which he contended that the prosecutor impermissibly used peremptory challenges to strike two African American jurors on the basis of race, constituted an unreasonable application of Batson and resulted from an unreasonable determination of the facts. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 2253 . We review a district court’s denial of a habeas corpus petition de novo, see Stanley v. Cullen, 633 F.3d 852, 859 (9th Cir.2011), and we affirm.

I.

We conclude that the California Court of Appeal conducted the “sensitive inquiry” required at step three of the Batson analysis, which is the relevant clearly established federal law under United States Supreme Court precedent. Batson, 476 U.S. at 93 , 106 S.Ct. 1712 ; 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (d)(1). The Court of Appeal properly inquired into the genuineness of the prosecutor’s reasons for the peremptory strikes and considered all the circumstances in the case. The court…