African-American Death Row Inmate Suffered Race Bias: Top US Court

Washington: The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favour of an African American death row inmate who argued there was bias in the choosing of an all-white jury that convicted him of the 1986 murder of an elderly white woman.

By a 7-1 vote, the justices struck down a Georgia Supreme Court ruling denying Timothy Foster appellate review of his death sentence. Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, the court's only African American member, dissented.

"This means that Timothy Foster is entitled to a new trial at which jurors are not excluded based on race," his lawyers said in a statement.

div id='ndtvrelcontent'></div>The decision, coming nearly 30 years after Foster's death penalty conviction, highlighted the continuing effect of racism on jury selection in the United States.

Foster's lawyers showed that prosecutors had maneuvered to keep blacks off the jury, presenting as evidence prosecutor's notes at a November 2015 Supreme Court hearing.

The notes, which were obtained after Foster's 1987 conviction, included a list of prospective jurors that had the handwritten letter "B" next to the names of African Americans on the list.

Those designated with a "B" were rejected for the jury under a selection process that allows prosecutors to block, or "strike," a certain number of potential jurors.

Foster's lawyer told the court that the prosecutors drew up a list of six prospective jurors to be stricken from the panel: five were black, and one was opposed to the death penalty.

'Arresting' References To Race

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said the prosecution's file "plainly belie the state's claim that it exercised its strikes in a 'colour-blind' manner."

"The sheer number of references to race in that file is arresting," he wrote.

The state of Georgia had vehemently defended the prosecutors, arguing that they had documented their actions in order to show they were being thoughtful and not discriminatory in considering prospective black jurors.

But the court's majority said that the state's argument "reeks of afterthought," noting it had never been raised before in the case's 30-year history.

"In addition, the focus on race in the prosecution's file plainly demonstrates a concerted effort to keep black prospective jurors off the jury," Roberts wrote.

"The state's new argument today does not dissuade us from the conclusion that its prosecutors were motivated in substantial part by race when they struck Garrett and Hood from the jury 30 years ago," the opinion said, referring to two black potential jurors, Marilyn Garret and Eddie Hood.

The court's decision reverses a Georgia state Supreme Court order denying Foster appellate review of his death sentence, and remands the case "for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion."

Thomas dissent

Foster had confessed to murdering Queen Madge White, a 79-year-old retired school teacher who was sexually assaulted and killed in her home in Rome, Georgia in August 1986.

Thomas, in his dissent, said the Supreme Court should have sought clarification from the state supreme court, rather than overrule it.

In doing so, he wrote, "the court affords a death-row inmate another opportunity to relitigate his long-final conviction."

Justice Samuel Alito wrote a concurring opinion that, while agreeing with the majority's conclusion, cautioned that it was important not to "lightly brush aside" the state's legitimate interest in a process that "militates against repetitive litigation and endless delay."

In a statement, Foster's lawyer Stephen Bright said the court had no choice but to find that prosecutors intentionally discriminated in striking black prospective jurors and that they "lied about it by giving false reasons for their strikes when the real reason was race."

"Jury strikes motivated by race cannot be tolerated. The exclusion of black citizens from jury service results in juries that do not represent their communities and undermines the credibility and legitimacy of the criminal justice system."