338
Opinion of the Court
A prisoner seeking a COA must prove " 'something more than the absence of frivolity' " or the existence of mere "good faith" on his or her part. Barefoot, supra, at 893. We do not require petitioner to prove, before the issuance of a COA, that some jurists would grant the petition for habeas corpus. Indeed, a claim can be debatable even though every jurist of reason might agree, after the COA has been granted and the case has received full consideration, that petitioner will not prevail. As we stated in Slack, "[w]here a district court has rejected the constitutional claims on the merits, the showing required to satisfy § 2253(c) is straightforward: The petitioner must demonstrate that reasonable jurists would find the district court's assessment of the constitutional claims debatable or wrong." 529 U. S., at 484.
B
Since Miller-El's claim rests on a Batson violation, resolution of his COA application requires a preliminary, though not definitive, consideration of the three-step framework mandated by Batson and reaffirmed in our later precedents. E. g., Purkett v. Elem, 514 U. S. 765 (1995) (per curiam); Hernandez v. New York, 500 U. S. 352 (1991) (plurality opinion). Contrary to the state trial court's ruling on remand, the State now concedes that petitioner, Miller-El, satisfied step one: "[T]here is no dispute that Miller-El presented a prima facie claim" that prosecutors used their peremptory challenges to exclude venire members on the basis of race. Brief for Respondent 32. Petitioner, for his part, acknowledges that the State proceeded through step two by proffering facially race-neutral explanations for these strikes. Under Batson, then, the question remaining is step three: whether Miller-El "has carried his burden of proving purposeful discrimination." Hernandez, supra, at 359.
As we confirmed in Purkett v. Elem, 514 U. S., at 768, the critical question in determining whether a prisoner has proved purposeful discrimination at step three is the persua-
Page: Index Previous 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007