On September 11, 2006, Bybee wrote the majority opinion in "Kesser v. Cambra", granting habeas corpus to the defendant by a 6–5 vote. Richard Kesser had been convicted of hiring a hitman to kill his former wife and was sentenced to life without parole. During Kesser's trial in 1995, the prosecutor had eliminated three Native American jurors and one Asian juror for racial reasons. Effectively granting Kesser a new trial, this decision laid out the current "Batson" analysis in the Ninth Circuit.