The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear the appeal of a black Mississippi death row inmate who argues prosecutors discriminated against him by excluding black jurors from his trial.
The high court’s decision in Pitchford v. Cain on Dec. 15 took the form of an unsigned order. No justices dissented.
The petitioner, Terry Pitchford, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in February 2006.
The case is about whether lower courts erred in holding that Pitchford waived his right to contest the prosecution’s decision to strike four black jurors.
Batson v. Kentucky, a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision, forbids a state from using its peremptory challenges to exclude jurors because of their race. A peremptory challenge is one that a lawyer does not have to justify in court….