Posted by Dave on 03/22/08 at 10:19:12 pm
Categories: Capital Punishment, Crime and Justice

Court overturns death sentence on race claim:

The Supreme Court Wednesday overturned the death sentence of Allen Snyder, a Louisiana man convicted of hacking his wife's lover to death, because an African-American juror was unfairly excluded from the panel.

This is excellent news.

Prosecutions often attempt to exclude certain individuals from juries, especially those who happen to have the same race of the defendant. As African-American defendants are disproportionately represented in death penalty cases, it is often easier for the prosecution to simply dismiss any possible jurors who are also African-American. Of course, they give "reasons" for such dismissals, but they are often fail to actually be valid criteria for such exclusion. This, in turn, often creates a lilly-white jury that is more likely to convict a black man of a violent crime.

Good for the Supreme Court, including Justices Roberts and Alito.

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