Eppie McClain v. K.W. Prunty, Warden Attorney General of the State of California

PREGERSON, Circuit Judge:

California state prisoner Eppie McClain appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for habeas corpus in which he challenged his conviction for second-degree robbery. McClain, who is black, asserts that at his state trial the prosecutor exercised peremptory challenges to exclude all blacks from the jury in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as articulated in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). On direct appeal, the California Court of Appeal affirmed his conviction and the California Supreme…