Madison v. Commissioner, Alabama Department of Corrections

Vernon Madison, an Alabama prisoner on death row, appeals from the district court’s denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus, brought pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. This Court granted Madison a Certificate of Appealability as to the following issues: (1) whether the trial judge and Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals violated Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), and the Fourteenth Amendment by erroneously concluding that counsel had not established a prima facie case of discrimination in the prosecution’s use of peremptory strikes; (2) whether the…