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US Supreme Court overturns death sentence in race-based challenge case

The United States Supreme Court issued a decision this morning in Snyder v. Louisiana. In a 7-2 decision authored by Justice Alito, the Court held that a Louisiana death sentence should be overruled because the trial judge committed clear error in ruling on the defendant's objection to a prosecution peremptory challenge, which the defendant argued was based on race. The prosecution used peremptory challenges against all five of the potential jurors who were African American. The defendant challenged two of those strikes. The Supreme Court found that the trial court committed clear error in overruling one of the two Batson challenges, so it did not address the second challenge. It found that "the explanation given for the strike of Mr. Brooks [was] by itself unconvincing and suffices for the determination that there was Batson error...continue to full post

Full post as published by Harmful Error on March 19, 2008 (boomark / email).