Civil Rights Groups File Class Action Lawsuit Against Mississippi Prosecutor Over Systemic Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection

Two civ­il rights orga­ni­za­tions have filed a class action law­suit against Mississippi pros­e­cu­tor Doug Evans (pic­tured) seek­ing an end to what they describe as a ​“pol­i­cy, cus­tom, and usage of racial­ly dis­crim­i­na­to­ry jury selec­tion.” The law­suit, filed by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the MacArthur Justice Center on November 18, 2019 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi on behalf of black prospec­tive jurors in Mississippi’s Fifth Circuit Court District, asks the fed­er­al court to issue an injunc­tion against Evans to bar his office from dis­crim­i­na­to­ri­ly exclud­ing black jurors from jury ser­vice because of their race.

Evans has been found by mul­ti­ple courts, includ­ing the U.S. Supreme Court, to have uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly exer­cised his dis­cre­tionary jury chal­lenges to strike prospec­tive black jurors from serv­ing on juries. Since 1992, when Evans became District Attorney in Mississippi’s Fifth Circuit Court District, his office has struck black prospec­tive jurors at 4.4 times the rate at which white prospec­tive jurors were strick­en. According to the law­suit, that is ​“a rate that is unpar­al­leled in any avail­able study.” Evans per­son­al­ly pros­e­cut­ed the six tri­als of Curtis Flowers, a death-row pris­on­er whose most recent con­vic­tion was over­turned by the U.S. Supreme Court in June because of Evans’ sys­temic racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in jury selection.

The law­suit places Evans’ sys­temic jury dis­crim­i­na­tion in the his­tor­i­cal con­text of Jim Crow, lynch­ings, and white suprema­cy, pro­vid­ing local exam­ples of the Fifth Circuit Court District’s his­to­ry of racial prej­u­dice. The com­plaint states, ​“the hon­or and priv­i­lege of jury ser­vice is a defin­ing fea­ture of what it means to be an American cit­i­zen. When state or local offi­cials bar a cit­i­zen from ser­vice because he or she is Black, that dis­crim­i­na­to­ry act is no mere indig­ni­ty. It is an asser­tion that the prospec­tive juror is infe­ri­or — a sec­ond-class cit­i­zen who can­not be entrust­ed with the respon­si­bil­i­ties of full cit­i­zen­ship.” The law­suit names four plain­tiffs as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the class of prospec­tive black jurors, includ­ing Nichole Young, whom Evans struck from jury ser­vice in Curtis Flowers’ third tri­al. Evans claimed he had removed Young from the jury because of her views about the death penal­ty, but a court found that expla­na­tion ​“sus­pect” because Young’s response to ques­tion­ing about the death penal­ty was the same as two white jurors whom Evans per­mit­ted to serve. ​“I was open to hear the evi­dence and hear the case,” Young said. ​“It’s not fair.” 

The plain­tiffs do not seek mon­e­tary dam­ages against Evans, but request that the court ​“issue a per­ma­nent injunc­tion for­bid­ding the Defendant and his agents, employ­ees, and suc­ces­sors in office from main­tain­ing a cus­tom, usage, and/​or pol­i­cy of exer­cis­ing peremp­to­ry chal­lenges against prospec­tive Black jurors because of their race.” Jim Craig of the MacArthur Justice Center said, ​“I don’t think he’s going to change his ways until he’s ordered to change his ways. We think this is the way to actu­al­ly force him to change.” Chris Kemmitt of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund said, ​“There’s noth­ing to stop him from con­tin­u­ing to use his office as a means of dis­crim­i­nat­ing against Black prospec­tive jurors and func­tion­al­ly ren­der­ing them sec­ond-class cit­i­zens, oth­er than inter­ven­tion by a fed­er­al court at this point.”

The U.S. Supreme Court rebuked Evans ear­li­er this year for his mis­con­duct in the six tri­als of Curtis Flowers. Flowers’ first three con­vic­tions were over­turned as a result of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, and courts twice found that Evans had uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly dis­crim­i­nat­ed against black mem­bers of the jury in those tri­als. Flowers’ fourth and fifth tri­als, which each had juries that includ­ed more than one black mem­ber, end­ed in hung juries. In his sixth tri­al, a jury of 11 white jurors and one black juror con­vict­ed him and sen­tenced him to death. On June 21, 2019, a 7 – 2 major­i­ty of the U.S. Supreme Court over­turned Flowers’ con­vic­tion, again for Evans’ racial­ly dis­crim­i­na­to­ry selec­tion prac­tices. Writing for the Court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said, ​“Equal jus­tice under law requires a crim­i­nal tri­al free of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in the jury selec­tion.” Evans’ ​“relent­less, deter­mined effort to rid the jury of black indi­vid­u­als,” Kavanaugh wrote, ​“strong­ly sug­gests that the State want­ed to try Flowers before a jury with as few black jurors as pos­si­ble, and ide­al­ly before an all-white jury.”