Supreme Court rules for Black death row inmate from Mississippi over racial bias in makeup of jury
The justices said Pitchford’s lawyers may not have had enough chance to challenge the prosecutor’s removal of Black jurors, in a case tied to Batson rules.
- On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of Terry Pitchford, a Black Mississippi death row inmate, over claims that prosecutors improperly excluded Black jurors during his trial.
- The case has spent 20 years in the legal system, anchored in the 40-year-old Batson v. Kentucky precedent that prohibits excusing jurors based on race and requires judges to evaluate discrimination claims.
- Prosecutor Doug Evans dismissed four Black jurors in Pitchford's case; Evans also prosecuted Curtis Flowers, whose conviction the Supreme Court overturned seven years ago citing a "relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of Black individuals," Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote.
- District Judge Michael P. Mills overturned Pitchford's conviction in 2023, citing Evans' prior actions as partial motivation; a unanimous panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed that ruling.
- Pitchford, now 40, was 18 when he and a friend robbed Crossroads Grocery near Grenada in northern Mississippi; store owner Reuben Britt was fatally shot, though the friend was ineligible for capital punishment due to his age.
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117 Articles
The Supreme's decision does not exonerate Terry Pitchford, but it does order a review of the judicial process under guaranteed constitutional standards.
Supreme Court Rules Jury Selection Was Botched in Mississippi Death Penalty Case
The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5–4 on May 28 to revive a black death row inmate’s challenge to his conviction. The nation’s highest court found in Pitchford v. Cain that the trial judge didn’t properly handle claims that black jurors were excused on account of their race. The highly technical case focused on whether defense attorneys did enough to object to the trial judge’s rulings and whether the Mississippi Supreme Court acted reasonably in fin…
Supreme Court sides with death row inmate, issues criminal rulings
The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a Black death row inmate in Mississippi who challenged his conviction, claiming the prosecutor wrongly eliminated Black jurors from the pool that found him guilty of capital murder.
Supreme Court, on another 5-4 vote, tosses out another death sentence
For the second time in two weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling tossing out a death sentence. Again, it was a 5-4 decision. In both cases, the Democratic appointees — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — were joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh in voting to vacate a death sentence imposed decades earlier. In both cases, Justices Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, and Neil Gorsuch voted to uphold the death sentence. …
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