That's the title of a Saturday Houston Chronicle editorial regarding the Supreme Court ruling in Snyder v. Louisiana. LINK
A7-2 decision by a coalition of conservative and liberal justices on the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the murder conviction and death sentence of a Kenner, La., man. The court ruled that prosecutors improperly struck a black college student from the jury, and the trial judge refused to reinstate him.
Actually, the prosecutor eliminated all five black people from a final jury pool of 36 people. He used his peremptory challenges to pick an all-white jury. In addition, the prosecutor repeatedly referred to the trial of Allen Snyder as his "O.J. Simpson case," connecting the defendant to the notorious acquittal of the former football star and actor.
And:
Where have we heard this before? The scenario should ring a bell with readers of Chronicle columnist Lisa Falkenberg, who explored Harris County prosecutor and district attorney candidate Kelly Siegler's striking of a black juror in a murder case.
Although Siegler told the judge she eliminated AT&T manager Matthew Washington because he was a member of Lakewood Church, she did not strike two other prospective jurors who were Lakewood members. They were Hispanic, both had arrest records, and they had answered affirmatively to the question, "Do you feel blacks are more violent than other racial groups?"
Harris County prosecutors and former prosecutors who are African-American told Falkenberg the district attorney's office exerts subtle pressure to keep minorities off juries.
That atmosphere of discrimination might explain an e-mail circulated in 2003 by the chief of the district attorney's felony division congratulating a prosecutor for winning a case with a weak jury containing "Canadians," a term used by some in law enforcement as a code word for black people.
As federal prosecutor Ken Magidson serves his nine months as District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal's replacement, he must investigate allegations of racial bias in jury selection. The Supreme Court has made clear its intolerance for such behavior, and so should Magidson and the candidates vying to be elected district attorney in the November general election.
Earlier coverage of the ruling is here.
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