Todya's earlier post on the decision in Snyder v. Louisiana (06-10119) is here. The opinion is here. More on Batson v. Kentucky, via Oyez, is here.
In the New York Times David Stout reports, "Justices Overturn Louisiana Death Sentence."
The Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the conviction and death sentence of a Louisiana man who killed his estranged wife in a jealous rage, finding that the trial judge “committed clear error” in excluding black jurors from the trial.
By 7 to 2, the court ruled in favor of Allen Snyder, whose case came before the justices for the second time last December, two years after they had sent it back to the Louisiana Supreme Court and told that tribunal to consider whether the jury selection had been tainted by racial bias.
The Louisiana high court reaffirmed the conviction and sentence by a vote of 4 to 3, but the United States Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned that judgment, finding that, even under the wide deference that appellate courts must grant trial courts, the trial of Mr. Snyder, who is black, was tainted.
The opinion, written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., found that the prosecutor’s reasoning for excluding all black jurors was highly implausible, and that the trial judge should not have accepted it.
Justice Alito homed in on the exclusion of Jeffrey Brooks, who was a student-teacher at the time of Mr. Snyder’s 1996 trial. Mr. Brooks was dismissed from the panel after initially expressing concerns that a trial would interfere with his school work. But the prosecutor declined to reconsider seating him even after it became clear that his dean would adjust his schedule to accommodate the jury service and that the trial was likely to be brief in any event.
Justice Alito wrote that the prosecutor’s explanation for dismissing Mr. Brooks — that he was worried that Mr. Brooks’s nervousness over his studies would incline him to vote against a death sentence to avoid long deliberations — was not believable.
“The implausibility of this explanation is reinforced by the prosecutor’s acceptance of white jurors who disclosed conflicting obligations that appear to have been at least as serious as Mr. Brooks’s,” Justice Alito wrote, noting that a white juror who had expressed concerns over his wife’s illness and the conduct of his independent contracting business had been seated.
The majority relied on a standard the Supreme Court articulated in a 1986 ruling, Batson v. Kentucky, which requires a prosecutor to give a “race neutral” explanation when asked about an apparent pattern of racial jury selection. In that respect, the exclusion of Mr. Brooks was improper even under the wide deference that appellate courts must give trial courts, the ruling said.
The Washington Post has, "Supreme Court overturns La. murder case." written by Robert Barnes.
During oral arguments in the case, Snyder's lawyer, Stephen B. Bright of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, made much of the juror's exclusion and the trial judge's passivity in accepting the prosecutor's reasoning.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wondered at the time whether the exclusion of blacks from the jury was connected to Williams' remarks about Simpson. "Do you think the prosecutor would have made the analogy if there had been a black juror on the jury?'' he asked the state of Louisiana's lawyer.
Joan Biskupic writes, "Supreme Court tosses La. man's conviction, death sentence," in USA Today.
This morning's 7-2 decision, which would require a new trial for Allen Snyder, marks a rare reversal by the justices of a murder conviction, particularly on a claim of racial prejudice during jury selection.
Snyder was tried in 1996 of the murder of his estranged wife's friend. It was less than a year after O.J. Simpson had been acquitted of killing his wife and her friend. During the sentencing phase of the Snyder case, prosecutor Jim Williams had slyly referred to the famous California trial and said the "perpetrator" in that case "got away with it."
The Times-Picayune says the Louisiana Supreme Court had ruled that race wasn't a factor in the jury selection process. Today's ruling sends this case back to the state courts.
And the New Orleans Times-Picayune has, "U.S. overturns Jeff death penalty case."
The U.S. Supreme Court today threw out the death sentence and conviction in a Louisiana murder case, citing racial prejudice in the actions of a prosecutor who kept black people off the jury.
By a 7-2 vote, the justices said Jefferson Parish 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.
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, said the trial judge should not have allowed Williams to strike a black juror. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Stevens, Stephen Breyer and Anthony Kennedy.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented.
During jury selection in the trial, Williams disqualified all five black people in the pool of prospective jurors.
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