Thomas Miller-El Conviction Overturned!

[nattyreb]

:cheers: :cheers:

Death Row Inmate's Conviction Overturned

Monday June 13, 2005 4:16 PM

By HOPE YEN

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a black
death row inmate who said Texas prosecutors unfairly stacked his jury with
whites, issuing a harsh rebuke to the state that executes more people than
any other.

The 6-3 ruling Monday ordered a new trial for Thomas Miller-El, who
challenged his conviction for the 1985 murder of a 25-year-old Dallas motel
clerk. It was the second time justices reviewed the case after a lower
court refused to reconsider Miller-El's claims.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans was wrong to reaffirm
the conviction by a state court in light of the strong evidence of
prejudice during jury selection, justices said.

The state court's conclusion that the prosecutors' strikes of people >from
the jury pool was ``not racially determined is shown up as wrong to a clear
and convincing degree; the state court's conclusion was unreasonable as
well as erroneous,'' Justice David H. Souter wrote for the majority.

In the opinion, Souter noted that black jurors were questioned more
aggressively about the death penalty, and the pool was ``shuffled'' at
least twice by prosecutors, apparently to increase the chances whites would
be selected.

He was joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony
Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.

``The prosecutors' chosen race-neutral reasons for the strikes do not hold
up and are so far at odds with the evidence that pretext is the fair
conclusion, indicating the very discrimination the explanations were meant
to deny,'' Souter wrote.

``At least two of the jury shuffles conducted by the state make no sense
except as efforts to delay consideration of black jury panelists,'' Souter
said, adding that it ``blinks reality'' to deny jurors were struck because
they were black.

Since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, Texas has executed over
one-third of the more than 900 people put to death in the United States.

Justices last year issued stinging reversals in three cases involving
Texas death penalty convictions on various grounds, a striking number for a
conservative-leaning court that generally favors capital punishment. All
the cases involved black defendants.

Miller-El contends that Dallas County prosecutors had a long history of
excluding blacks from juries and pointed to training manuals that were
distributed to prosecutors from the 1960s into the early 1980s. The manuals
advised prosecutors to remove blacks or Jews from death penalty juries on
the theory that those groups would be more sympathetic to criminal
defendants.

At trial, he was convicted by a 12-member jury that included one black.
Prosecutors struck nine of the 10 blacks eligible to serve.

In a dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas argued that Texas prosecutors had
offered enough evidence that exclusions were made for reasons other than
race.

For instance, the state's explanation that jurors were struck based on
their hostility to the death penalty is plausible, and the alleged racial
motivation behind prosecutors' decision to shuffle the jury pool is only
speculative, wrote Thomas, the court's only black member.

``In view of the evidence actually presented to the Texas courts, their
conclusion that the state did not discriminate was eminently reasonable,''
Thomas wrote in an opinion joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and
Justice Antonin Scalia.

Last year, the Supreme Court overturned two Texas death sentences because
jurors were not told of the defendants' learning disabilities. They were
LaRoyce Lathair Smith, convicted for the 1991 killing of a Taco Bell
manager in Dallas, and Robert Tennard, charged with killing a Houston
neighbor in 1985.

The court also lifted Delma Banks' death sentence and delivered a strong
criticism of Texas officials and lower courts, saying that prosecutors had
hid crucial information that might have helped Banks' case.

The case is Miller-El v. Dretke, 03-9659.

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[Jahness]

Greetings nattyreb!

BlackNificent news indeed! May our ancestors be praised.

Thanks nattyreb for doing such a great job of keeping us all
informed.

Peace & Blessings!