New Trial for Killer of Tracey Biletnikoff

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals strikes again:

A federal appeals court overturned a San Mateo County man's murder conviction Tuesday for strangling Tracey Biletnikoff, daughter of former Oakland Raiders star receiver Fred Biletnikoff, ruling that the prosecutor had removed at least one black juror for racial reasons.

A three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco granted a new trial to Mohammed Haroon Ali, who was sentenced to 64 years to life in prison. At his trial in 2001, his lawyer argued for a manslaughter conviction and a 22-year sentence for Ali, who admitted the killing.

Ali, who had residences in South San Francisco and San Mateo, met Tracey Biletnikoff in 1997 at Project 90, a San Mateo drug and alcohol rehabilitation program where both were being treated. They started dating a year later while recovering from their addictions and helping younger patients in the program.

According to trial testimony, Biletnikoff, 20, found out in February 1999 that Ali had relapsed into drug use and tried to get him back into treatment. They argued at the Project 90 office, where he was working, and he strangled her there with his hands and a T-shirt.

Ali dumped Biletnikoff's body near Cañada College in Redwood City and fled to Mexico in her car, authorities said. He was arrested coming back across the border.

A defense lawyer said Ali was consumed by a violent craving for crack and other drugs when he killed Biletnikoff. Ali did not testify at the trial but apologized to her family at his sentencing. He was sentenced to 55 years to life for the murder, plus nine years for a previous kidnapping conviction in which his sentence had been suspended.

During jury selection, the prosecutor, Chief Deputy District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe, used two of his challenges to remove both African Americans from the panel of prospective jurors. State courts and a federal judge accepted Wagstaffe's explanation of nonracial reasons for his actions, but the appeals court said the record showed he had fabricated reasons for dismissing at least one of the jurors.

Wagstaffe told the trial judge he believed the juror might not be objective because her daughter had been the victim of an attempted molestation that was prosecuted in court, and because the juror had hesitated briefly when asked whether her Christian faith would make her reluctant to judge someone else.

But the court said Wagstaffe had accepted at least three white jurors who gave similar responses on their experience with domestic violence cases or the effect of their religious beliefs on their ability to sit in judgment on Ali, an immigrant from Fiji.

"The prosecutor's asserted concern about objectivity was not an actual reason for his decision to strike (the juror), but was pretext," Judge Marsha Berzon said in the 3-0 ruling.

Defense lawyer A.J. Kutchins said the case was one of many in which California courts, for the last two decades, "have shamefully countenanced the elimination of jurors on the basis of their race." Federal courts have overturned several such convictions, he said, and "hopefully they will finally get the message."

Wagstaffe said his office hasn't decided whether to seek a further appeal. "Every comment I made in that (trial) courtroom was the complete truth," the prosecutor said. "There was no pretext."

Hat tip: View from the Right.