Constantino Carrera v. Robert Ayers, Jr.

OPINION

BEA, Circuit Judge:

We must today decide whether defense counsel’s failure in 1983 to object to a California prosecutor’s allegedly group bias-based peremptory challenges constituted ineffective assistance of counsel, which ineffectiveness now requires a grant of federal habeas relief under the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

During the murder trial of Constantino Carrera, defense counsel failed to object to the prosecutor’s use of peremptory challenges to strike six Hispanic1 venirepersons. Carrera appeals the district court’s denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus…