Orlando Cordia Hall v. T. J. Watson, Warden

(CAPITAL CASE) When Petitioner, a Black man, was sentenced to death in a Texas federal courtroom after the prosecution struck four out of five Black prospective jurors (while knowing the defense would strike the fifth for her strong pro-death penalty views) and provided purportedly “race-neutral” reasons for each strike. Years after Petitioner’s trial, and after relief had been denied on his § 2255 motion, this Court concluded in Miller-El v. Dretke, 545 U.S. 231 (2005), that one of Petitioner’s prosecutors, Paul Macaluso, had struck Black jurors based on their race, and then lied about doing so, in violation of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 69 (1986). The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently concluded that Macaluso had done the same in another case, Reed v. Quarterman, 555 F.3d 364 (2009). Because Miller-El and Reed were not decided until Petitioner’s § 2255 habeas proceedings concluded, and because he does not meet the standard for filing a successive § 2255 petition, which requires either new evidence of actual innocence or a new rule of constitutional law made retroactive by this Court, Petitioner raised this Batson claim via the “savings clause” of § 2255(e) through a petition for writ of habeas corpus brought under 28 U.S.C. §2241. The district court agreed that Petitioner's Batson allegations stated an "extremely serious" claim of constitutional error, but concluded that Petitioner was barred from (i)