Supreme Court sides with Black death row inmate who alleged racial discrimination in jury selection
CBS News • • general
Key Points:
- The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of Terry Pitchford, a Black death row inmate from Mississippi, who argued racial discrimination during jury selection in his capital murder trial.
- The majority opinion, authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, found that the trial court failed to properly apply the Batson v. Kentucky framework, which prohibits excluding jurors based on race.
- During jury selection, the prosecutor used peremptory strikes to exclude four of five Black potential jurors, providing race-neutral reasons that the trial court accepted without allowing Pitchford's lawyers to rebut them.
- The ruling clears the way for Pitchford's conviction to be invalidated, though he could still be retried by the state; the decision is narrow and applies specifically to Pitchford's case.
- Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented, arguing that Pitchford did not meet the legal standard for relief and criticized the majority's handling of the factual record.