In Miller-El v. Cockrell (2003) 537 U.S. 322, 123 S. Ct. 1029, 1043, the United States Supreme Court reversed the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which had refused to issue a certificate of appealability on a Batson-based federal habeas corpus motion. (123 S. Ct. at p. 1045.) The United States Supreme Court concluded in Miller-El that the defendant had established a prima facie case of racial discrimination requiring further investigation by the trial court. (Ibid.) This conclusion was based on the fact that different voir dire questions were addressed to nearly all African-American venirepersons than were addressed to white venirepersons, and that the prosecution's proffered racially neutral reasons for using a peremptory challenge applied to both minority venirepersons who were dismissed and white venirepersons who were empanelled. (Ibid.)