Supreme Court Rules Prosecutor’s Exclusion of Black Juror Was Improper
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled a trial court erred when it allowed a prosecutor to remove a black juror partly on the ground that he appeared nervous.
The prosecutor, Jim Williams, had cited nervousness and the juror’s obligations as a student teacher when he exercised a peremptory challenge to keep the man off the Louisiana jury, SCOTUSblog reports.
The Supreme Court ruled the error justified overturning the conviction of black death-row inmate Allen Snyder, who was accused of wounding his estranged wife and killing her lover as they returned from a date. Besides raising the juror issue, Snyder had challenged the prosecutor’s remarks comparing his case that of O.J. Simpson.
But the majority opinion (PDF posted by SCOTUSblog) by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. did not address the prosecutor’s Simpson comments. The blog characterized the decision as a straightforward application of the Supreme Court’s 1986 ruling, Batson v. Kentucky, which barred race-based peremptory challenges.
Alito said the prosecutor cited the black juror’s possible scheduling conflict while accepting white jurors with conflicts that were at least as serious, the Associated Press reports.
The opinion also noted that the trial judge did not make any findings about whether the potential juror actually appeared nervous.
The ruling is Snyder v. Louisiana.
