Kareem M. Murray v. Joseph H. Noeth

Albany, New York criminal defense lawyer represent Plaintiff, who sued defendant seeking a writ of habeas corpus.



Petitioner-Appellant Kareem Murray was convicted of second-

degree murder and other offenses in New York state court. During

jury selection, Murray's lawyer exercised peremptory strikes against

two male jurors, but the prosecutor raised a "reverse-Batson”

challenge—that is, a claim that the defendant (rather than the

prosecution) was using strikes in a discriminatory manner. See Batson

v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986); Georgia v. McCollum, 505 U.S. 42 (1992).

The state court disallowed the two strikes, and Murray was convicted.

Murray petitioned unsuccessfully for habeas corpus relief under 28

U.S.C. § 2254 in the United States District Court for the Northern

District of New York (James K. Singleton, Judge.). On appeal, Murray

renews his challenge to the state court's reverse-Batson ruling. We

need not determine whether the state court properly applied Batson

or erred in disallowing the two peremptory strikes, because those

claims are not cognizable under § 2254. The Supreme Court has held

that a state defendant has no freestanding federal constitutional right

to peremptory strikes, and so a state court's mistaken disallowance of

such a strike does not, standing alone, form a basis for federal habeas

relief. See Rivera v. Illinois, 556 U.S. 148, 157–58 (2009). Likewise, any

procedural error by the state court in following the three-step Batson

framework would not, without more, constitute a violation of a

federal constitutional right.

Affirmed