{"id":31008,"date":"2022-04-22T15:33:55","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T15:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/?p=31008"},"modified":"2022-04-22T15:33:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T15:33:55","slug":"supreme-court-rejects-case-on-juror-said-to-harbor-racial-bias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/22\/supreme-court-rejects-case-on-juror-said-to-harbor-racial-bias\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Rejects Case on Juror Said to Harbor Racial Bias"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The Supreme Court on Monday <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/21pdf\/21-5050_3dq3.pdf\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">turned away an appeal<\/a> from a death row inmate in Texas who said his jury had been tainted by racial bias. The inmate, Kristopher Love, a Black man, had objected to the seating of a juror who had said he believed \u201cnonwhite races\u201d to be the \u201cmore violent races.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">The court\u2019s three liberal members dissented, saying the Supreme Court should have instructed the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state\u2019s highest court for criminal matters, to reconsider Mr. Love\u2019s challenge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">\u201cWhen racial bias infects a jury in a capital case, it deprives a defendant of his right to an impartial tribunal in a life-or-death context,\u201d Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, joined by Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Elena Kagan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">The majority, following the court\u2019s standard practice, gave no reasons for refusing to hear Mr. Love\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">Mr. Love was convicted of committing a murder for hire. As part of jury selection in his case, prospective jurors filled out a questionnaire that asked, among other things, \u201cDo you believe that some races and\/or ethnic groups tend to be more violent than others?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">The prospective juror in question, who is white, said yes. He added an explanation: \u201cStatistics show more violent crimes are committed by certain races. I believe in statistics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">He elaborated when he was questioned by the lawyers in the case, saying he based his views on \u201cnews reports and criminology classes\u201d rather than his \u201cpersonal feelings toward one race or another.\u201d The prospective juror added that he did not \u201cthink because of somebody\u2019s race they\u2019re more likely to commit a crime than somebody of a different race\u201d and that he would not feel differently about Mr. Love \u201cbecause he\u2019s an African American.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">Mr. Love\u2019s lawyers asked the judge to strike the prospective juror for cause, but the judge declined. Mr. Love had exhausted his peremptory challenges, and the juror was seated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that Mr. Love could not contest the judge\u2019s decision to seat the juror because the judge had earlier granted Mr. Love two extra peremptory challenges. Mr. Love had used those challenges before the juror at issue was questioned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">Justice Sotomayor wrote that \u201ca previously used peremptory strike does not eliminate the need to inquire into the juror\u2019s bias.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">She said that the state appeals court should grapple with whether Mr. Love\u2019s right to an impartial jury had been violated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">\u201cBiases capable of destroying a jury\u2019s impartiality can take many forms,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWhatever the nature of the bias, if a trial court seats a juror who harbors a disqualifying prejudice, the resulting judgment must be reversed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">Justice Sotomayor added that the questioning of potential jurors played an important role in the effort \u201cto cleanse our jury system of racial bias.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-g5piaz evys1bk0\">\u201cSafeguards like this, however, are futile if courts do not even consider claims of racial bias that litigants bring forward,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThe task of reviewing the record to determine whether a juror was fair and impartial is challenging, but it must be undertaken, especially when a person\u2019s life is on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/04\/18\/us\/politics\/supreme-court-racial-bias-juror.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] WASHINGTON \u2014 The Supreme Court on Monday turned away an appeal from a death&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31010,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31008\/revisions\/31010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}