In the United States Court of Appeals For the Second Circuit

August Term, 2021 No. 20-3136-pr

KAREEM M. MURRAY, Petitioner-Appellant,

v.

JOSEPH H. NOETH, Respondent-Appellee.

On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York

ARGUED: MARCH 11, 2022 DECIDED: APRIL 26, 2022

Before: SACK, PARK, and NARDINI, Circuit Judges.

Petitioner-Appellant Kareem Murray was convicted of second- degree murder and other offenses in New York state court. During jury selection, Murray’s lawyer exercised peremptory strikes against two male jurors, but the prosecutor raised a “reverse-Batson” challenge—that is, a claim that the defendant (rather than the prosecution) was using strikes in a discriminatory manner. See Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986); Georgia v. McCollum, 505 U.S. 42 (1992). The state court disallowed the two strikes, and Murray was convicted. Murray petitioned unsuccessfully for habeas corpus relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (James K. Singleton, Judge.). On appeal, Murray renews his challenge to the state court’s reverse-Batson ruling. We need not determine whether the state court properly applied Batson or erred in disallowing the two peremptory strikes, because those claims are not cognizable under § 2254. The Supreme Court has held that a state defendant has no freestanding federal constitutional right to peremptory strikes, and so a state court’s mistaken disallowance of such a strike does not, standing alone, form a basis for federal habeas relief. See Rivera v. Illinois, 556 U.S. 148, 157–58 (2009). Likewise, any procedural error by the state court in following the three-step Batson framework would not, without more, constitute a violation of a federal constitutional right. We therefore AFFIRM the district court’s judgment.

ARTHUR R. FROST, Frost & Kavanaugh, P.C., Troy, NY, for Petitioner-Appellant.

JODI A. DANZIG, Assistant Attorney General (Barbara D. Underwood, Solicitor General, Nikki Kowalski, Deputy Solicitor General for Criminal Matters, on the brief), for Letitia James, Attorney General of the State of New York, New York, NY, for Respondent- Appellee.

2 WILLIAM J. NARDINI, Circuit Judge:

Federal courts have limited authority to review state criminal convictions. Under 28 U.S.C. § 2254, to get a federal remedy, a petitioner must invoke his federal rights.

Kareem Murray, the petitioner-appellant here, was tried and convicted in New York state court for second-degree murder and other offenses. During jury selection, Murray’s lawyer exercised peremptory strikes against certain male jurors, but the prosecutor raised a “reverse-Batson” challenge—that is, a claim that the defendant (rather than the prosecution) was using strikes in a discriminatory manner. See Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986); Georgia v. McCollum, 505 U.S. 42 (1992). The state court disallowed the two strikes, and Murray was convicted. Murray sought, but was denied, habeas relief under § 2254 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (James K. Singleton, Judge). On appeal, Murray argues that the state court failed to properly apply the

3 three-step analysis for determining whether a peremptory strike is motivated by purposeful discrimination, which the Supreme Court first