U.S. Supreme Court sides with death row inmate over racist juror claim
Source: Reuters
JANUARY 8, 2018 / 9:43 AM / UPDATED 17 MINUTES AGO
Lawrence Hurley
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for a black Georgia inmate to challenge his 1991 death sentence for killing his sister-in-law after he argued the case was tainted by a racist white juror who questioned whether black people have souls.
The justices, in a 6-3 unsigned decision, threw out a lower courts decision that had rejected his biased jury assertion. Keith Tharpe was found guilty and sentenced to death by a jury of 10 white people and two black people in Georgias Jones County. The allegations of racial bias arose from an interview with one of the jurors years later, not comments made during the trial.
Mondays ruling means the case will return to lower courts and gives Tharpe a chance to avoid execution. Tharpe had been scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection in a Georgia state prison on Sept. 26 but the Supreme Court granted his last-minute stay application so it could have more time to decide whether to hear his appeal.
Tharpe, 59, kidnapped and raped his estranged wife, Migrisus Tharpe, and used a shotgun to kill Jaquelin Freeman, her sister, in September 1990, according to court records.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-deathpenalty/u-s-supreme-court-sides-with-death-row-inmate-over-racist-juror-claim-idUSKBN1EX1GG?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Too depressed to find out who they are...because if Shitler gets to appoint two more racist white justices, Thomas as honorary member, then what?
Mz Pip
(27,462 posts)Gorsuch, Alito and Thomas. No surprise there.
thesquanderer
(12,001 posts)I'm amazed he was accepted for the jury, based on just on that. The racist slant doesn't seem as significant, considering that the victim was black as well, so racism could have cut either way.
Bradical79
(4,490 posts)Questioning whether black people have souls isn't in any way diminished by any other circumstances.