Moran v. Clarke

• Decision Date: 11 April 2006
• Docket Number: No. 04-2902.,04-2902.
• Citation: 443 F.3d 646
• Parties: Thomas MORAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Anne-Marie CLARKE; Robert Haar; Wayman F. Smith, III; Jeffery Jamison; Clarence Harmon, comprising the Board of Police Commissioners for the City of St. Louis; Ronald Henderson; Paul M. Nocchiero; Gregory Hawkins; Al Klein; Willie Thirdkill, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

443 F.3d 646

Thomas MORAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Anne-Marie CLARKE; Robert Haar; Wayman F. Smith, III; Jeffery Jamison; Clarence Harmon, comprising the Board of Police Commissioners for the City of St. Louis; Ronald Henderson; Paul M. Nocchiero; Gregory Hawkins; Al Klein; Willie Thirdkill, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 04-2902.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: October 11, 2005.

Filed: April 11, 2006.

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Eli Karsh, argued, St. Louis, MO (Stanley E. Goldstein, St. Louis, on the brief), for appellant.

Peter J. Dunne, argued, St. Louis, MO (Priscilla F. Gunn and Barbara Micheels, St. Louis, on the brief), for appellee.

Before ARNOLD, BEAM, and SMITH, Circuit Judges.

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

Thomas Moran, a St. Louis city police officer, sued various police department officials in their individual and official capacities alleging they violated his federal substantive due process rights and maliciously prosecuted him under state law. After a storied, lengthy, and racially-charged history, this case ended with the jury finding in favor of the defendants. Moran appeals, arguing the district court¹ erred in denying his motion for a new trial because of error during voir dire. Specifically, Moran contends that his challenges for cause and peremptory challenges against all of the black members of the venire should have been granted. We disagree and affirm the district court's denial of Moran's motion for a new trial.

I. Background

This case arises from the aftermath of the notorious 1997 beating of Gregory Bell, a mentally-impaired black teenager, by St. Louis police officers. The incident catalyzed racial tensions in the community. Moran's lawsuit alleged that city officials, several of whom are black, made him a scapegoat for Bell's beating because he is white. Moran contended no evidence linked him to the beating. The factual and procedural history of this case is welldocumented. Moran v. Clarke, 296 F.3d 638 (8th Cir.2002); Moran v. Clarke, 309 F.3d 516 (8th Cir.2002); Moran v. Clarke, 213 F.Supp.2d 1067 (2002), Moran v. Clarke, 359 F.3d 1058 (2004); Moran v. Clarke, 323 F.Supp.2d 974 (2004).

In the most recent district court proceeding, the matter went to trial. During voir dire, Moran moved to strike for cause two of the four black members of the venire, Juror Norman-Cook and Juror Greene. In response to questioning, both jurors expressed strong feelings about the Bell incident. However, both Norman-Cook and Greene also indicated that they could be fair and impartial, despite the fact that doing so would be difficult. The district court denied the challenges for cause.

Moran then attempted to strike all four black members of the venire with peremptory challenges. In response, the defendants challenged the proposed strikes under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). Moran's counsel proffered race-neutral explanations for the proposed strikes. First, Moran stated that Norman-Cook, an intensive care unit (ICU) nurse, said that images of Bell's beating gave her flashbacks to other seriously injured persons she has treated over the years as an ICU nurse. Moran noted that Norman-Cook had a mentally-challenged nephew. Norman-Cook stated several times that she had very strong feelings about the case, but she also stated that she could base her judgment of the case on the facts presented in court despite those feelings. Moran's peremptory challenge was granted with respect to Norman-Cook.

Second, Moran's race-neutral reasons for excluding Juror Greene were Greene's recollection of emotion and anger surrounding the Bell incident and belief that he would have trouble being impartial. Third, Moran noted Juror Tate's unemployment and that he appeared hostile and antagonistic² as race-neutral reasons for using a peremptory challenge. Fourth, Moran provided two race-neutral reasons for the peremptory challenge to Juror Jones: (1) Jones testified during voir dire that he had served on a federal jury recently but could not remember the judge's name or the case outcome, and (2) Jones indicated in his voir dire questionnaire that he watched TV but testified that he did not remember hearing about the widely televised Bell incident. Notwithstanding the foregoing proffered race-neutral reasons for striking Jurors Greene, Tate, and Jones, the district court concluded that the reasons proffered were pretext. The district court rejected Moran's race-neutral reasons without requiring defendants to state why the reasons proffered were pretext.

Following trial on the merits, the jury found in favor of the defendants. Moran then moved for a new trial, alleging error in the denial of his for-cause challenges and peremptory challenges. In its published order denying the motion, the district court reaffirmed its disbelief that the reasons for the peremptory challenges were race neutral. The court noted that "Mr. Greene was hardly the only member of the venire panel who recalled the Bell incident, yet he was the only venire person [Moran] chose to strike because of his memory." 323 F.Supp.2d at 981. The court further observed that striking Greene because of his memory was difficult to reconcile with the attempt to strike Jones due to his lack of memory of the Bell incident. The court also stated that there was no support for Moran's contention that Tate should be struck because of hostility or unemployment. Moran now appeals. We affirm.

II. Discussion

A. Challenges for Cause

Moran appeals the district court's denial of his challenges for cause against Jurors Norman-Cook and Greene. We review denial of strikes for cause under an abuse of discretion standard. United States v. Amerson, 938 F.2d 116, 118 (8th Cir.1991). Appellants must clear a high hurdle to obtain reversal of a district court's decision regarding the dismissal of a juror for cause. The courts presume that a prospective juror is impartial, and a party seeking to strike a venire member for cause must show that the prospective juror is unable to lay aside his or her impressions or opinions and render a verdict based on the evidence presented in court. United States v. Wright, 340 F.3d 724, 733 (8th Cir.2003). Essentially, to fail this standard, a juror must profess his inability to be impartial and resist any attempt to rehabilitate his position. See id.

Both Norman-Cook and Greene expressed that their recollection of the Bell beating affected them emotionally. Both acknowledged difficulty being impartial, given their strong emotions. Nonetheless, both consistently stated that they could be impartial. The district court accepted the genuineness of the jurors assurances and denied Moran's motion to strike these two jurors for cause. Given the district court's superior position to gauge the jurors' credibility, we cannot say that the district court abused its discretion.³

B. Peremptory Challenges

Moran also appeals the district court's denial of his attempted peremptory challenges to all four black members of the venire. Specifically, the district court allowed one black juror, Norman-Cook, to be stricken by peremptory challenge but denied the dismissal of the other three, concluding the race-neutral reasons advanced by Moran to be pretextual and therefore prohibited by Batson, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69, and its progeny.

In Batson, the Supreme Court set forth a three-step analysis for peremptory challenges under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. "First, the opponent of the peremptory challenge must establish a prima facie showing that the challenge is discriminatory." United States v. Wolk, 337 F.3d 997, 1007 (8th Cir.2003). Second, "[t]he proponent of the peremptory challenge must then articulate a race-neutral explanation for the challenge." Id. Third, "[i]f a race-neutral explanation is offered, the challenger must show that the explanation is a pretext for discrimination." Id. We review the denial of a peremptory challenge pursuant to Batson for clear error. United States v. Elliott, 89 F.3d 1360, 1365 (8th Cir.1996).

Moran directed all of his challenges—both for cause and peremptory—at the four black members of the venire. Thus, the defendants established a prima facie case under Batson, as the attempt to strike all black members of the venire and no one else raises an inference of a discriminatory purpose. Green v. Travis, 414 F.3d 288, 299 (2d Cir.2005) (holding that the prosecution's attempt to use all of its for-cause and peremptory challenges to strike black and Hispanic jurors established a prima facie case of discrimination under Batson); Harris v. Kuhlmann, 346 F.3d 330, 346-47 (2d Cir.2003) (holding that it was "objectively unreasonable" for the state appellate court to hold that petitioner failed to make a prima facie case under Batson where all five prospective black jurors were eliminated by peremptory challenge). In Batson, the Supreme Court stated that "a `pattern' of strikes against black jurors included in the particular venire might give rise to an inference of discrimination." Batson, 476 U.S. at 97, 106 S.Ct. 1712. This case involves a pattern of using challenges to strike all prospective black jurors from the venire. By finding that this pattern established a prima facie case, we do not suggest that numbers alone create or negate a prima facie case under Batson. See Luckett v. Kemna, 203 F.3d 1052, 1054 (8th Cir.2000) ("Although the number of African-Americans struck is relevant to determining whether a defendant has made a prima facie case, that evidence alone is insufficient to negate or create such a case."). In Luckett, the defendant's Batson challenged rested primarily on the fact that "the prosecutor had used most of his peremptory challenges against potential African-American jurors." Id. We held that numbers alone could not establish a prima facie case. Here, by contrast, Moran's attempt to...