Judge Who Recalled Jury Rejects Race Bias Claims

A Massachusetts judge who, in an unprecedented move, recalled jurors to query them about potential racial bias in a murder case, has rejected the allegations that bias played a role in the jury's decision.

Barnstable Superior Court Judge Gary A. Nickerson ruled that when a juror referred to the defendant, trash collector Christopher M. McCowen, as a "big black man" the juror was being descriptive, the Boston Globe reports. In 2006, McCowen, who is black, was convicted of raping and fatally stabbing a white fashion writer, Christa Worthington, in her Truro house in 2002.

"Set in this context, the words 'big black man' are descriptive, identifying who inflicted the injuries and the size of the assailant,''' Nickerson wrote in a 40-page decision. He added that the phrase "did not constitute racial bias.''

Nickerson, the trial judge in the case, held a public hearing in January in which he recalled McCowen's jury and questioned each of them about whether race infected sometimes heated jury deliberations.