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The supreme court is hearing arguments on Tuesday about racial bias in jury selection in a death penalty case stemming from Mississippi.
Doug Evans, a now-retired prosecutor, removed all but one Black person from a jury that convicted Terry Pitchford of capital murder in 2006. The judge, Joseph Loper, allowed the juror strikes and Mississippi’s supreme court upheld the conviction.
But, seven years ago – in a case that also involved Evans, Loper and Mississippi’s highest court – the supreme court overturned the death sentence and conviction of Curtis Flowers, a Black man who had been tried six times dating back more than 20 years. The court had seven of the nine current justices at the time and Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative justice, wrote that Evans showed a “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of Black individuals”.
Pitchford, now 40, was 18 when he and another teen – who was younger than 18 and therefore ineligible for the death penalty – robbed a grocery store just outside of Grenada in northern Mississippi. The other teen fired fatal shots, but Pitchford was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.
During jury selection, Evans struck multiple Black prospective jurors, leaving only one on the panel, despite defense attorneys’ objection that the dismissals were racially motivated. The trial judge allowed the strikes.
Pitchford and his supporters pointed to precedent from the Flowers ruling and argued that the court should likewise rule in his favor. The case before the supreme court on Tuesday has been making its way through the court system for decades.
