Yesterday, the Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Thomas Miller-El on the ground that the jury was infected by racial discrimination. The court found that many 9 out of 10 eligible black jurors were prevented from serving on the jury. The jury pool was also shuffled many times to increase the likelihood that black jurors would be excluded.
The Court also sent a rebuke to Texas as this was the second time in three years the court had to opine on the case. The 6-3 decision stated that it “blinks reality” to deny that prosecutors didn’t strike the potential jurors for any other reason but for their race. The Court also considered evidence of memos, manuals, and policies going back 40 years putting forth a policy of striking African-American jurors.
The State Of . . . capital punishment. Texas has put to death over a third of the people executed in this country since the death penalty was reinstated. The Texas criminal judicial system is an efficient killing machine. How can we change it?
Filed under: Uncategorized
