Rodney E. Thomas v. Robert G. Borg Attorney General, California

BRUNETTI, Circuit Judge:

Rodney E. Thomas (Thomas) was convicted by a Kern County, California jury of rape, sodomy, oral copulation, and false imprisonment. He now appeals the denial of his 28 U.S.C. § 2254 petition for writ of habeas corpus, alleging that he was deprived of his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to a jury drawn from a representative cross section of the community, and that his trial counsel provided him with ineffective assistance by failing to raise, investigate, or preserve a challenge to the composition of his jury panel.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS BELOW

Thomas, a black male,…