Keith Jamerson v. Gail Lewis

We must decide whether the California courts’ determination that a prosecutor had genuine, race-neutral reasons for striking four black jurors during voir dire was an unreasonable application of federal constitutional law.

I

On June 15, 1999, California Highway Patrol Officers Joseph Phillips and John Beay found Petitioner Keith Jamerson sitting in the driver’s seat of a Chevrolet truck stopped on a highway exit ramp in Manchester, California. Jamerson claimed to own the truck and requested that the officers help him move it off the exit ramp. Noticing that the passenger window on the truck was broken and that broken glass was scattered on the passenger seat and floorboard, the officers ran the license plate of the truck before attempting to move it. They discovered that the vehicle was registered to Phillip Allen — not Jam-erson. Further investigation revealed that Jamerson did not have a key to the vehicle and that the ignition had been turned without a key. Jamerson’s walking cane was found on the passenger seat atop the broken glass.

Jamerson was charged in California state court with one count of unlawful driving or taking of a vehicle and one count of receiving…