No. 22-834

Harshad Shah v. United States

Lower Court: Ninth Circuit
Docketed: 2023-03-02
Status: Denied
Type: Paid
Response Waived
Tags: buck-v-davis certificate-of-appealability cultural-bias cultural-predisposition habeas habeas-corpus ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel racial-animus trial-counsel
Key Terms:
HabeasCorpus
Latest Conference: 2023-03-24
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether the Ninth Circuit's refusal to issue a certificate of appealability categorically ignored the petitioner's habeas issues and conflicted with Supreme Court precedent on racial animus

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

QUESTION PRESENTED FOR REVIEW In Pefia-Rodriguez v. Colorado, 580 U.S. 206 (2017), this Court again condemned the use of racial animus in the sexual assault trial of a Mexican man, when, during deliberations, a juror said that “nine out of ten Mexican men were guilty of being aggressive toward women and young girls.” Here, ineffective trial counsel allowed the Government to taint Shah’s bribery corruption trial with racial animus opinion that people from India, like Petitioner, were culturally predisposed to corruption. Therefore, the question presented is: Given that the trial court found ineffective assistance of counsel when defense counsel failed to object to testimony that people from India were culturally predisposed to corruption, but that such evidence caused no prejudice, did the Ninth Circuit’s refusal to issue a certificate of appealability categorically ignore Shah’s multiple habeas issues and directly conflict with this Court’s standard and racial animus precedent in Buck v. Davis", Miller-El?, and Pefia-Rodriguez v. Colorado? 1 Buck v. Davis, 580 U.S. 100, 120-21 (2017). ? Miller-El v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 336 (2003).

Docket Entries

2023-03-27
Petition DENIED.
2023-03-08
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/24/2023.
2023-03-06
Waiver of right of respondent United States to respond filed.
2023-02-28

Attorneys

Harshad Shah
Ezekiel E. CortezLaw Offices of Ezekiel E. Cortez, Petitioner
Ezekiel E. CortezLaw Offices of Ezekiel E. Cortez, Petitioner
United States
Elizabeth B. PrelogarSolicitor General, Respondent
Elizabeth B. PrelogarSolicitor General, Respondent