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Supreme Court will hear Miller-El case on Merits

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]
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