Michael Simpson, A/K/A Woods v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts

BOWNES, Circuit Judge.

This- is an appeal by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from the granting of a writ of habeas corpus to Michael Simpson by the district court. The court ruled

that the racially biased exercise of peremptory challenges by the prosecution fatally tainted the selection of the petitioner’s trial jury in violation of his rights under the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States as made applicable to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment. I further rule that the error was not harmless and the petitioner has standing to prosecute this application.

Simpson v.…