Human sacrifice in Texas
Quote of note:
Justice Stephen G. Breyer read Texas Assistant Attorney General Gena Bunn an extensive summary of the case, noting that prosecutors had used their right under Texas law to "shuffle" the jury pool to move blacks away from the front of the line in jury selection. Breyer quoted from seemingly identical answers to questions about the death penalty from two potential jurors, white and black, and then noted that prosecutors objected only to the black person.
"I think that's the whole story there," Breyer said. "I look at those two in context and I say, 'My goodness.' "
Bunn replied that there were other, race-neutral reasons for blocking the black prospective juror. Pointing out that prosecutors were looking for jurors who would embrace the death penalty, she noted that the black juror had said that any criminal could be rehabilitated.
"Looking for jurors who embrace the death penalty." Jesus.
Can we say "racist" about this one?
Court Hears Argument on Race Bias in Capital Case
By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 7, 2004; Page A03
A lawyer representing a Texas death row inmate urged the Supreme Court yesterday to rebuke the state and federal judges who supervise the state's capital punishment system, as the court heard oral argument on a case of alleged racial discrimination in jury selection.
Seth P. Waxman, who served as solicitor general under President Bill Clinton, argued that prosecutors deliberately excluded black potential jurors in the 1986 murder trial of Thomas Miller-El, who is black, and that both the Texas courts and the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit disregarded that evidence when they upheld Miller-El's death sentence.
