The transcript should be available here later today. SCOTUS Blog's Lyle Denniston has extensive coverage in, "Commentary: Trial Judges on Trial?" Here is Lyle's opening:
The case of Snyder v. Louisiana (06-10119) may live in history as a case about using O.J. Simpson’s legal troubles as a way to “play the race card” before an all-white jury trying a black man. The Supreme Court, in a hearing on Tuesday, showed some fascination with that part of the case. But the decision that ultimately emerges from the Court may also bring a call for trial judges to take a more active role in monitoring the race factor in criminal trials. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, in fact, implied that there may be a price to pay if judges do not take the hint: they won’t get the usual respect and deference, in appeals, for their conduct of trials.
Much of the Court’s one-hour hearing was occupied with an exhaustive examination of the details of jury selection in Snyder’s trial for murder in Jefferson Parish. That was to be expected: this is a “Batson case.” Since ruling in Batson v. Kentucky in 1986, curbing prosecutors’ use of peremptory challenges to keep blacks off of juries, the sequels in the Court to that decision have been focused much more on the specifics of each trial under review, with not much further development of the controlling legal principles. So, once again, the Justices spent a great deal of time on why some individuals were struck while others were not, and on how to judge whether, in each instance, race was or could have been the key factor. Much of that, of course, focuses on the actions of prosecutors and defense lawyers. This is the Court’s way of judging the totality of racial overtones in a trial to check for Batson violations.
More on Batson is here and here, via Oyez.com. AP's Mark Sherman has, "Court Hears Prosecutor's 'OJ' Case."
The Supreme Court cast doubt Tuesday on the actions of a prosecutor who called a Louisiana murder trial his "O.J. Simpson case."
Skeptical justices considered whether the prosecutor, Jim Williams, improperly excluded blacks from the jury that convicted Allen Snyder of killing his estranged wife's companion. Snyder is black and the jurors were white.
The trial took place less than a year after Simpson was acquitted of killing his ex-wife and a male friend of hers. Leading up to the trial, Williams, made repeated public references to the Snyder case as his "O.J. Simpson case."
In his final remarks before jurors decided whether to sentence Snyder to death or life in prison, Williams said the case reminded him of Simpson's, although he didn't use Simpson's name.
"The perpetrator in that case...got away with it," Williams said, after the judge overruled a defense objection.
"Do you think the prosecutor would have made that analogy if there had been a black person on the jury?" Chief Justice John Roberts asked Louisiana Assistant Attorney General Terry Boudreaux.
After a long pause, Boudreaux replied, "I think he would have."
Williams disqualified all five blacks in the pool of prospective jurors. Under a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, attorneys are not allowed to exclude people from a jury solely because of their race.
Earlier coverage is here.
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