Kelvin Malone v. Daniel Vasquez, Warden, San Quentin State Prison Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Missouri Attorney General

I respectfully dissent. The all-white jury that convicted Kelvin Malone, a 20-year-old black male with a tenth grade education, was empaneled in violation of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 89, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 1719, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986) (holding that equal protection clause forbids prosecutor to challenge potential jurors solely on account of race). Moreover, Malone was" denied the effective assistance of counsel at the penalty *722phase of his trial. Each of these constitutional errors constitutes an independent basis for the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus, and both issues were properly…