Rankins

MEMORANDUM ***

The state of California appeals the district court’s order granting Randolph Ran-kins’ 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging his conviction *297 for robbery. Rankins, who is African-American, argued that the prosecution improperly exercised a peremptory challenge against the last African-American member of his voir dire panel.

We review the district court’s decision to grant a § 2254 habeas petition de novo. Alvarado v. Hill, 252 F.3d 1066, 1068 (9th Cir.2001). Because Rankins’ petition was filed after April 24, 1996, it is subject to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”). Lockhart v. Terhune, 250 F.3d 1223, 1228 (9th Cir.2001). Under AEDPA, we can reverse a state court’s decision denying relief only if the decision either was “contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States” or “based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the state court proceeding.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (d).

The state argues, and the trial court and the California Court of Appeal agreed, that under…

dissenting.

HAWKINS, Circuit Judge.

I respectfully dissent. In a close case, an African-American defendant saw the *298 only potential African-American juror challenged by the prosecutor. Facing a Batson challenge, the prosecutor provided a two-part justification: (1) that he challenged all potential jurors who were “involved in education” — yet he allowed a retired teacher to sit (someone much closer to being “involved in education” than someone who “worked” — in what capacity we do not know — at a local community college); and (2) that he did not like her “short form” answers to the juror questionnaire — yet many of the jurors who went unchallenged gave similarly brief responses (the trial judge admitted he had “encouraged” the rapid filling out of the forms by potential jurors). These explanations are gossamer at best and smack of pretext. I would defer to the judgment of the district judge, a seasoned trial veteran who carefully considered the record and chose to grant the writ.