The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear -- for a second
time -- the case of a Texas death-row inmate who has said that racial
bias tainted his 1986 murder conviction in Dallas. Attorneys for Mr.
Miller-El argued that Blacks were systematically excluded as a matter
of policy by the Dallas District Attorney's office. Through the use of
peremptory challenges 91% of eligible Black jurors were removed.
Only a single Black juror remained. At the time of the original trial,
in "100 felony trials in Dallas prosecutors peremptorily struck
405 out of 467 eligible jurors; the chance of a qualified Black siting
on a jury was 1 in 10, compared to 1 in2 for a white person."
WFAA has [more]
