Supreme Court rules for black death row inmate over prosecutor's racial bias

[SaysWho?]

Brett Kavanaugh wrote the 7-2 opinion. He was joined by the court's four liberals and Republican appointed judges Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

 

Quote

The Supreme Court on Friday reversed the conviction of a Mississippi death row inmate who said the state prosecutor repeatedly kicked black people off the jury each time he was tried for the same murders.

 

The court sent the case back to the state for further proceedings.

 

The ruling was a victory for Curtis Flowers, who is black. He was tried six times for the 1996 murder of four furniture store employees in Winona, Mississippi, where he had recently worked. Of the first five trials, one conviction was thrown out over questions about evidence and two resulted in mistrials.

 

But in the other two trials, state courts found that the prosecutor in the case, Doug Evans, wrongly excluded potential jurors on the basis of their race. In the case before the Supreme Court involving his sixth and most recent trial, Flowers again accused the prosecutor of impermissibly removing blacks from the jury.

 

Quote

Justice Clarence Thomas asked a few questions when the case was argued in March, breaking his three-year courtroom silence. He wanted to know if the defense lawyers used any peremptory challenges to exclude potential jurors. Told that they did, Thomas asked, "And what was the race of the jurors struck there?" The answer: only whites.

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

This podcast covers the case pretty extensively.

 

https://www.apmreports.org/in-the-dark/season-two

[Guest]

The In The Dark season on this case is really unsettling. The prosecutor should be disbarred.

[Bloodporne]

Is anything, I don't know, given to these poor people that wasted a significant chunk of their lives like this? I don't know much about the subject but are they at the very least given some sort of compensation/reparation for their lost time?

[outsida]

Both sides. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

15 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

Is anything, I don't know, given to these poor people that wasted a significant chunk of their lives like this? I don't know much about the subject but are they at the very least given some sort of compensation/reparation for their lost time?

That only occurs in situations of wrongful conviction.

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, Bloodporne said:

Is anything, I don't know, given to these poor people that wasted a significant chunk of their lives like this? I don't know much about the subject but are they at the very least given some sort of compensation/reparation for their lost time?

Wrongful conviction compensation varies widely from state to state. Anything outside of a clear wrongful conviction will not be compensated at all.

[Bloodporne]

10 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

Wrongful conviction compensation varies widely from state to state. Anything outside of a clear wrongful conviction will not be compensated at all.

Absolutely a guillotine scenario. 

[skillzdadirecta]

For all those people who are hawks about how taxpayer money is spent, how do you feel about the amount of money spent by states and municipalities for wrongful convictions and police shootings? Chicago for example, spends a LOT of money on wrongful deaths and civil suits against law enforcement.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

18 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

For all those people who are hawks about how taxpayer money is spent, how do you feel about the amount of money spent by states and municipalities for wrongful convictions and police shootings? Chicago for example, spends a LOT of money on wrongful deaths and civil suits against law enforcement.

That shit should come right out of police pensions

[Kal-El814]

Based solely on my 2 experiences during jury duty, keeping the juror pool free of people who look like the defendant happens all the fucking time.

[TwinIon]

So he's again cleared and again able to be put on trial again? Unfortunately, it doesn't seem likely to me that the prosecutor will give this up, though it certainly seems like there should be some punishment for this.

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

So he's again cleared and again able to be put on trial again? Unfortunately, it doesn't seem likely to me that the prosecutor will give this up, though it certainly seems like there should be some punishment for this.

Yup, reset back to the point if his initial arrest. And clearly this is a personal issue for the prosecutor, he simply won’t let it go.

[Mercury33]

I know nothing about the law. How is it they’re able to try him over and over again? 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

10 minutes ago, Mercury33 said:

I know nothing about the law. How is it they’re able to try him over and over again? 

Because he has never been actually acquitted (found "not guilty") of the crime, the legal provisions preventing "double jeopardy" do not apply.

[TheGreatGamble]

2 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

For all those people who are hawks about how taxpayer money is spent, how do you feel about the amount of money spent by states and municipalities for wrongful convictions and police shootings? Chicago for example, spends a LOT of money on wrongful deaths and civil suits against law enforcement.

I have a lot of problems with the way tax dollars are spent, especially on putting minorities in jail on non violent drug charges, and all the things you mentioned. It’s billions of dollars a year that would be better served improving the communities it harms.

[skillzdadirecta]

14 minutes ago, Mercury33 said:

I know nothing about the law. How is it they’re able to try him over and over again? 

 

Unless he's acquitted and found not guilty, it's up to the prosecutors if they want to keep trying him... which they chose to do.