Yarborough
Williams v. Yarborough
Opinion
Lead Opinion
MEMORANDUM **
California state prisoner Darren Charles Williams appeals the district court’s denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 habeas petition challenging his conviction of four counts of first-degree murder and his sentence of four consecutive terms of twenty-five years to life in state prison. We affirm.
We review de novo the district court’s grant or denial of a petition for writ of habeas corpus. Arredondo v. Ortiz, 365 F.3d 778, 781 (9th Cir.2004). The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act applies. Woodford v. Garceau, 538 U.S. 202, 207 , 123 S.Ct. 1398 , 155 L.Ed.2d 363 (2003).
I. Batson Claim
Petitioner argues that the prosecutor did not exercise his peremptory strikes in a race-neutral way when he used six of his first eight peremptory strikes to strike African-American prospective jurors. Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 , 106 S.Ct. 1712 , 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). Petitioner *707 alleges that the prosecutor questioned African-American prospective jurors differently from the way he questioned jurors of other races to create pretextual race-neutral reasons. See Miller-El v. Dretke, 545 U.S. 281 , 241, 125 S.Ct. 2317 , 162 L.Ed.2d 196 (2005).