Prisoner Loses Habeas Appeal Over Race-Related Jury Strike

A California prisoner failed to convince the Ninth Circuit on Friday to grant his habeas petition claiming that a trial judge struck a juror based on race-related reasons in violation of the prisoner’s constitutional rights, with the court saying the comments weren’t about the juror’s race but about the possibility of bias.

Tomas Rodriguez Infante, who was convicted of killing his wife and sentenced to 25 years to life, appealed based on the court’s decision to excuse a Filipino juror over a complaint that he could potentially be biased because Infante looked like his uncle. After that appeal failed, he ...