United States v. Clyde Major Thompson, AKA Clyde Johnson

KOZINSKI, Circuit Judge:

In this case we must answer some of the questions left open by the Supreme Court in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). The most important of these is whether the district judge abused his discretion by conducting an in camera, ex parte examination of the prosecutor’s motives for excluding blacks from the jury.

Facts

On July 1,1985, two employees of Security Pacific National Bank in San Diego left the branch where they worked and crossed the street. It was early in the morning and the two were following their daily routine of servicing…