Lark v. Sec'y Pa. Dep't of Corr.

Full title: ROBERT LARK v. SECRETARY PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS; THE…

Court: UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT

Date published: May 6, 2014

566 F. App'x 161 (3d Cir. 2014)

Opinion

No. 12-9003

05-06-2014

ROBERT LARK v. SECRETARY PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS; THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY PHILADELPHIA COUNTY; THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA, Appellants

Thomas W. Dolgenos, Esq. (ARGUED) Ronald Eisenberg, Esq. Edward F. McCann, Jr., Esq. R. Seth Williams, Esq. Counsel for Appellants Leigh M. Skipper, Esq. Stuart Lev, Esq. (ARGUED) Federal Community Defender Office Eastern District of Pennsylvania Counsel for Appellee

MCKEE

NOT PRECEDENTIAL

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

(No. 2-01-cv-01252)

District Judge: Honorable John R. Padova

Before: McKEE, Chief Judge, SCIRICA and GREENBERG, Circuit Judges

Thomas W. Dolgenos, Esq. (ARGUED)
Ronald Eisenberg, Esq.
Edward F. McCann, Jr., Esq.
R. Seth Williams, Esq.

Counsel for Appellants Leigh M. Skipper, Esq.
Stuart Lev, Esq. (ARGUED)
Federal Community Defender Office
Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Counsel for Appellee

OPINION

MCKEE, Chief Judge

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania appeals the order of the District Court granting Robert Lark's Petition for a writ of habeas corpus. This is the second time this case has come before us. We previously held that the District Court had not proceeded to the third step of the inquiry required under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), and remanded for the court to conduct that analysis. See Lark v. Sec'y Pa. Dep't of Corr., 645 F.3d 596, 628 (3d Cir. 2011) ("Lark I"). On remand, the District Court concluded that Lark had established by a preponderance of the evidence that the Commonwealth had struck five Black potential jurors because of their race. We must now determine if the District Court's findings were clearly erroneous. Holloway v. Horn, 355 F.3d 707, 713 (3d Cir. 2004); Lark I, 645 F.3d at 606.

We have explained that, "relief must be granted under Batson when even one black person is excluded [from the jury] for racially motivated reasons." Holloway, 355 F.3d at 720 (internal quotation marks omitted). We have carefully considered the findings the District Court made on remand pursuant to its Third Step Batson analysis. We cannot conclude that the court's conclusion that at least one of the Commonwealth's peremptory strikes was racially motivated is clearly erroneous.

Accordingly, we will affirm the conditional grant of Lark's Petition for a writ of habeas corpus.