Supreme Court throws out conviction of inmate on Texas' death row

[Judi Lynn]

June 13, 2005, 9:57AM

Supreme Court throws out conviction of inmate on Texas' death row
From staff and wire reports

WASHINGTON — Today 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.
(snip)

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans was wrong to reaffirm the conviction in light of the strong evidence of prejudice, justices said.
(snip)

Miller-El's lawyers have argued that two Dallas County prosecutors with a history of discriminating against minorities in jury selection had deliberately kept blacks off his jury.

Lower courts disagreed. When the case first reached the Supreme Court in February 2003, eight of the nine justices found overwhelming evidence of discrimination. As in several other Texas death cases, they sent the case back to the 5th Circuit, demanding it take another look. But the appeals court reached its same conclusion, based not on the opinion of the Supreme Court majority but on that of the lone dissenter, Justice Clarence Thomas.

The Supreme Court heard arguments for a second time in December 2004 and were faced with a Dallas County prosecutor's old training manual advising against choosing jurors who are black, Jewish, Hispanic, Italian-American, bearded, fat or female.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3222941
(Free registration is required)

[trotsky]

1. BEARDED?

What the hell?

[Judi Lynn]

3. This guy could cover at least three of those restrictions!

[Hand]

4. Obvious Bolsheviks or drug-crazed hippies... nt

[GarySeven]

9. Bearded = Jewish

cain't have heathens sittin' on judge-mint.

[kostya]

2. They forgot Polish! What about Polish!

[Up2Late]

5. Yeah, can't have those FAT people on a Jury

Those FAT people are alway Hungry and they smell bad.:sarcasm:

Well this IS Good news.

[ugarte]

6. Thank God we have a Supreme Court to override the 5th Circuit

The 5th Circuit is the stupidest, backward-ass, racist Appeals Court in the country. This is a case where they ignored the Supreme Court's instruction the first time and had to be fianally overriden.

[lastliberalintexas]

22. Yeah, I thought the 11th was going to catch up for a while

But with the new appointments of Owen and Pryor, the 5th will hold that title for some time to come. I so appreciate those Senate Dems who caved- er, I'm sorry, compromised and allowed them on the bench. :eyes:

How bad does it have to be if even Scalia was in favor of overturning the death sentence?


And if you don't already know, the 5th does this kind of thing all the time, especially in death and employment cases. They get spanked by the SC at least once a term, but it never seems to bother them.

[rainbow4321]

7. TX Death row conviction overturned over race(jury stacked w/ white jurors)

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SCOTUS_DEATH_PENALTY?SITE=TXSAE&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-06-13-12-23-56

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.

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.

[msanthrope]

8. Remember this if J. Thomas wishes to move higher........

"But the appeals court reached its same conclusion, based not on the opinion of the Supreme Court majority but on that of the lone dissenter, Justice Clarence Thomas.

The Supreme Court heard arguments for a second time in December 2004 and were faced with a Dallas County prosecutor's old training manual advising against choosing jurors who are black, Jewish, Hispanic, Italian-American, bearded, fat or female."

Note to the Senators on the Judiciary Committee. This opinion of Justice Thomas's could provide interesting fodder if that fool ever thinks he's going to be Chief Justice.....

[geek tragedy]

10. Don't forget that Clarence Thomas was the only SC Justice who

said that Bush could detain American citizens without judicial review.

[Bigmack]

11. "Capital punishment....

.... is our way of demonstrating
the sanctity of life." -Orrin Hatch July, 2003 Esquire Magazine Interview)

"Holy Shit... what a moran!" .... George Orwell

[Judi Lynn]

18. Well, it figures! Thanks for the Orrin quote. My God.

Accompanies John Ashcroft on "Let the Mighty Eagle Soar?"

[Pirate Smile]

12. Death Row Conviction Overturned Over Race (US Supreme Court and Texas)

Death Row Conviction Overturned Over Race

By HOPE YEN
The Associated Press
Monday, June 13, 2005; 1:18 PM

WASHINGTON -- 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.


Death row inmate Thomas Miller-El, 50, sits in a visitation cell at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Livingston, Texas, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2002. The Supreme Court on Monday, June 13, 2005, overturned the conviction of Miller-EL, 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 ordered a new trial for Miller-El, who challenged his conviction for the 1985 murder of a 25-year-old Dallas motel clerk. (AP Photo/Brett Coomer) (Brett Coomer - AP)

-snip-
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.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/13/AR2005061300531.html

[AlCzervik]

13. Oh dear, there goes those activist judges again

expect ugliness from Mullah Robertson.

[Walt Starr]

14. Why am I unsurprised that the three dissenting opinions came from

Slappy Thomas, Big Tony (the Gun) Scalia, and Willy (Check-out) Rhenquist?

[Orangepeel]

28. of course. we knew without reading the names

If it is 6 - 3, those are the three.
If it is 7 - 2, the two are Scalia and Thomas.
If it is 8 - 1, the one is Thomas.

take it to the bank.

[quiet.american]

15. Clarence Thomas is a disgrace.

Being African-American myself, this is all I will write, lest I be accused of racism for the comments that are racing through my head after reading his "Uncle Thomas" drivel:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Scotus-Death-Penalty.html?hp&ex=1118721600&en=0b210baf4308f2f6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

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.

Damn, I miss Thurgood!

[NYC]

19. I love Thurgood Marshall.

I have to get some more Thurgood Marshall 37 cent postage stamps. :)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

16. So Badsen STILL isn't cleared up....

even though we know preemptory challenges are used for just this purpose

[ls317]

17. Death Row Conviction/Overturned of African American Suspect

WASHINGTON — 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.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3222941

[gratuitous]

20. Apparently a stacked jury is good enough for a death penalty case

But no jury can be trusted to return a fair verdict in a punitive damages case against an overrich corporation. Okay, got it.

[lastliberalintexas]

23. Actually, Texas lawyers and other opponents of tort reform

were using just that logic in the fight against the tort reform measures a couple of years ago. And it was working too, as people were finally seeing that a jury isn't such a bad thing after all. If we'd actually started a little earlier than July when the vote was to be held in September, we just might have won it.


But there are a couple of huge problems in the Texas CJ system. First, we have no true life without parole, and that would help a great deal. Second, the jury has to decide on prison or death while flying blind. The jury doesn't know at the time it makes its decision on death what will happen to the defendant if death is not the verdict. Will he serve 10 years or 50? They have no idea, which is one reason so many go for the known answer of death.

Why on earth would we want a fully informed jury deciding life and death issues?

[struggle4progress]

21. SCOTUS hasn't cared much recently about blatant miscarriages ..

.. of justice: actual innocence usually doesn't matter much to the right wingers. So this case must have really been over the top ...

[Orion The Hunter]

24. Man you gotta be kidding me!

And as usual Clarence Thomas and his pals Scalia and Rehnquist(the trio otherwise known as Curly, Larry and Moe) cannot be bothered with that little thing called fairplay or evenly applied justice...

[AllyCat]

25. More activist judges!

Clarence Thomas...no bias there. :sarcasm:

[recycledindi]

26. go back

can't we give texas back to whoever gave it to us? and florida too. nothing good ever comes out of those two places.

[Chauga]

27. A predictably racist thread on this has already popped up on Free Republic

Check it out.


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1422151/posts

[GoddessOfGuinness]

29. Members of the jury, have you reached a verdict?

We have, your honor...