Opinion · Supreme Court of the United States

Rice v. Collins

546 U.S. 333

Type
Opinion
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction
Federal
Date
2006-01-18
Topic
general

How later courts describe this case

  • holding that “eye rolling” and “youthfulness” were permissible grounds for exercising a peremptory challenge
  • holding that it was not unreasonable for a state court to determine that a prosecutor’s explanations were race-neutral for Batson purposes
  • recognizing that it is unsettled whether there are some factual disputes to which § 2254(e)(1) does not apply
  • holding that federal courts may not use “debatable inferences” to set aside a state court’s factual conclusion
  • holding that "the ultimate burden of persuasion regarding racial motivation rests with, and never shifts from, the opponent of the strike" (internal quotations omitted)
  • concluding that a prosecutor’s explanation for a peremptory strike of an African American female juror “could be seen as race neutral” where the same explanation also applied to “a peremptory strike on a white male juror”
  • holding that “[t]he panel majority’s attempt to use a set of debatable inferences to set aside the conclusion reached by the state court does not satisfy AEDPA’s requirements for granting a writ of habeas corpus”
  • stating that “[rjeasonable minds reviewing the record might disagree about” the ultimate issue is insufficient for habeas relief

Citator

UpLaw has not yet analyzed Rice v. Collins. The absence of a flag is not a finding that it is good law.

Cited by
1123 opinions

Headnotes

  1. Constitutional Law — Equal Protection A defendant's Batson challenge to a peremptory strike allegedly exercised on the basis of race proceeds in three steps: the trial court must first determine whether the defendant made a prima facie showing of racial discrimination; if so, the burden shifts to the prosecutor to present a race-neutral explanation that is comprehensible and not inherently discriminatory, need not be persuasive or even plausible; and finally the trial court must determine whether the defendant carried his burden of proving purposeful discrimination, which requires evaluating the persuasiveness of the prosecutor's justification, while the ultimate burden of persuasion on racial motivation rests with, and never shifts from, the opponent of the strike. 546 U.S. at 338 (citing Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 96–98; Purkett v. Elem, 514 U.S. 765, 767–768)
  2. Habeas Corpus — Standard of Review Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, a federal habeas court may grant relief on a Batson claim only if the state-court conclusion was an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the state-court proceeding; the federal court must therefore determine whether it was unreasonable for the state court to credit the prosecutor's race-neutral explanations, not whether it would have assessed the prosecutor's credibility differently. 546 U.S. at 338 (citing 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2))
  3. Habeas Corpus — AEDPA — Credibility Determinations in Batson Inquiries On federal habeas review, a state trial court's credibility determination at the third step of a Batson inquiry must stand unless it was unreasonable; the fact that reasonable minds reviewing the record might disagree about the prosecutor's credibility does not suffice to supersede the trial court's determination. 546 U.S. at 339–342
  4. Constitutional Law — Equal Protection A prosecutor's mistaken identification of one prospective juror as young, where two of the three jurors under discussion were in fact young, can reasonably be viewed as a misspoken numerical designation rather than a credibility-destroying error, and an accidental reference with respect to one juror does not, without more, undermine the prosecutor's credibility as to another juror. 546 U.S. at 340
  5. Constitutional Law — Equal Protection A prosecutor's improper reference to a juror's gender as a basis for a peremptory strike does not, by itself, establish that the prosecutor lied about her other race-neutral justifications or that a reasonable factfinder must reject them, where the prosecutor offered several other permissible and plausible race-neutral reasons and the defendant makes no showing that the gender reference demonstrates the strike was race-based. 546 U.S. at 340–341
  6. Constitutional Law — Equal Protection A prosecutor's stated concern that a young, single juror with few ties to the community might be too tolerant of a drug crime does not establish pretext merely because the juror stated during voir dire that she believed the charged conduct should be illegal and disclaimed any inability to be impartial; such wariness of the young and rootless may be seen as race neutral, particularly where the prosecutor exercised a peremptory strike on a white male juror with the same characteristics. 546 U.S. at 341
  7. Habeas Corpus — AEDPA — Distinction Between Factual and Legal Error The question whether a state court erred in determining the facts is distinct from whether it erred in applying clearly established federal law; where a state court recognized and applied Batson's burden framework, the sole habeas question is whether the trial court's factual determination at Batson's third step was unreasonable, and a state-court decision that is not an unreasonable determination of the facts satisfies AEDPA even if it might also be challenged as an unreasonable application of law. 546 U.S. at 342