Supreme Court Tosses Texas Death Sentence
With a stinging rebuke, the Supreme Court today threw out the death sentence of Thomas Miller-El. Prosecutors in the case had removed 91% of the black jurors.
Prosecutors removed 10 out of 11 potential black jurors before the trial. Miller-El is black while the victim was white. The jury had nine whites, one Hispanic, one Filipino and one black....[Justice David] Souter said the jury selection process was "replete with evidence that the prosecutors were selecting and rejecting potential jurors because of race."
The opinion by Justice Souter is here. Justices Scalia and Thomas and Chief Justice Rehnquist dissented.
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