Derrick Lesean Lewis v. Gail Lewis, Deputy Warden

Derrick Lesean Lewis appeals the district court’s denial of his habeas corpus petition. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2253 . During jury selection before his state court trial for murder, Lewis alleged that race motivated the prosecutor’s peremptory strike of an African American member of the jury venire in violation of his constitutional rights as articulated in Batson v. Kentucky, The state trial court rejected Lewis’s Batson motion, and the state appellate court affirmed. We conclude that the California Court of Appeal unreasonably applied law clearly established by the Supreme Court. Therefore, we reverse with instructions to grant the writ.

I.

The State of California charged Lewis with murder in connection with a gang-related killing in Santa Barbara. A twelve-member jury convicted Lewis, and he is currently serving a sentence of nineteen years to life. The jury selection process' — in particular, the prosecutor’s use of a peremptory strike to remove one of two African-Americans in the jury pool during the selection of alternate jurors — is at issue in this case. Lewis claims that the trial court improperly rejected his challenge of the prosecutor’s…