HOWELL v. LAMAS et al

Filing 40

MEMORANDUM ORDER overruling petitioner's objections, dismissing the Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus and denying the concomitant request for a certificate of appealability. The 34 magistrate judges report and recommendation filed on January 25, 2016, as augmented in the Memorandum Order is adopted as the opinion of the court. All as more fully set forth in the Memorandum Order. Signed by Judge David S. Cercone on 3/1/17. (mwm)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA
JOSEPH HOWELL,
Petitioner,
v.
MARIROSA LAMAS
SUPERINTENDANT AT S.C.I.
ROCKVIEW, THE ATTORNEY
GENERAL OF THE
COMMONWEALTH OF
PENNSYLVANIA, THE DISTRICT
ATTORNEY OF THE COUNTY OF
ALLEGHENY,
Respondents.

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2:12cv884
Electronic Filing

MEMORANDUM ORDER
AND NOW, this 1st day of March, 2017, after de novo review of the record and upon
due consideration of [34] the magistrate judge’s report and recommendation filed on January 25,
2016, and [39] petitioner's objections thereto, IT IS ORDERED that petitioner's objections are
overruled, the Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus is dismissed and the concomitant request for a
certificate of appealability is denied. The report and recommendation as augmented below is
adopted as the opinion of the court.
Petitioner's objections are without merit. Petitioner's contention - that the
underrepresentation of the African-American population in the Allegheny County jury pools at
the time of his trial is statistically sufficient to warrant an evidentiary hearing to further develop
his Sixth Amendment fair-cross-section claim - is unavailing. As Judge Klein aptly opined,
petitioner's argument and core statistical evidence fail to account for the difference between

statistical underrepresentation that is troubling because it fails to reflect the county population as
a whole and statistical underrepresentation that runs afoul of the Sixth Amendment. This core
statistical evidence presents the foundation for petitioner's fair-cross-section claim. But even if it
is augmented by other anecdotal evidence, it is insufficient to render the county jury-pool system
utilized at the time of petitioner's trial constitutionally deficient. In other words, petitioner has
failed to present a sound reason for further development of the record. Consequently, the writ of
habeas corpus and the concomitant request for a certificate of appealability have been denied

s/David Stewart Cercone
David Stewart Cercone
United States District Judge
cc:

Joseph Howell
FS7695
1100 Pike Street
Huntingdon, PA 16654-1112
(Via First Class Mail)
Rusheen R. Pettit, Esquire
(Via CM/ECF Electronic Mail)

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