Leron Porter v. Patricia Anne Coyne-Fague

Providence, Rhode Island civil rights lawyer represented Plaintiff, seeking a writ of habeas corpus.



No right is more fundamental to

our criminal justice system than the right of a defendant to a

fair trial. Over time, the Supreme Court has woven a tapestry of

rules designed to protect that right. An important strand in the

weave of that tapestry is laid out in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S.

79 (1986), under which a defendant may challenge a prosecutor's

peremptory strike of a prospective juror as racially

discriminatory.



In this habeas case, petitioner-appellant Leron Porter,

a Rhode Island state prisoner who is an African-American man

convicted of murder and other crimes, claims that the prosecutor

transgressed the Batson rule in the course of jury selection. The

state supreme court disagreed, see State v. Porter (Porter I), 179

A.3d 1218, 1226-27 (R.I. 2018), and the petitioner sought federal

habeas relief. The United States District Court for the District

of Rhode Island held that the prosecutor had crossed the Batson

line but that, under the rigorous standards applicable to habeas

review, the decision of the state supreme court should not be

disturbed. See Porter v. Coyne-Fague (Porter II), 528 F. Supp. 3d

2, 9-10 (D.R.I. 2021). The petitioner appeals.



This is the rare case in which the prosecutor's

explanation for his peremptory strike was not race-neutral on its

face and, thus, violated Batson. We hold that the decision of the

state supreme court, however viewed, cannot withstand habeas

review: that decision rests on either an unreasonable application

of clearly established federal law, an unreasonable determination

of the facts, or both. Consequently, we reverse the decision of

the district court and remand with directions that the district

court grant the habeas writ, ordering the state courts to vacate

the petitioner's convictions and, unless he is tried anew within

ninety days of the district court's order, to release him.

Reversed and remanded.