As human rights activists raise alarms about a new law in Brunei that would pun­ish homo­sex­u­al­i­ty by death by ston­ing, the U.S. Supreme Court con­sid­ers whether to hear a case in which jurors who exhib­it­ed anti-gay big­otry sen­tenced a gay defen­dant to death. Charles Rhines (pic­tured), a South Dakota death-row pris­on­er, is ask­ing the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case, after a low­er fed­er­al court denied him the oppor­tu­ni­ty to present juror state­ments show­ing that homo­pho­bic prej­u­dice played a role in his death sen­tence. Leading civ­il rights orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, American Civil Liberties Union, and Human Rights Campaign, have asked the Court to hear the case. Meanwhile, on April 3, 2019, Brunei will insti­tute new laws that will make homo­sex­u­al sex pun­ish­able by death. Brunei’s action has drawn a sharp rebuke from United Nations offi­cials, inter­na­tion­al human rights groups, and activists — includ­ing actor George Clooney and musi­cian Elton John, who are call­ing for a boy­cott of prop­er­ties owned by the Sultan of Brunei.

Charles Rhines filed a peti­tion in the U.S. Supreme Court in February 2019 seek­ing review of his case after a split pan­el of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vot­ed 2 – 1 not to hear his appeal. The civ­il rights orga­ni­za­tions filed sup­port­ing briefs on March 25 and the Court is sched­uled to con­sid­er Rhines’ peti­tion on April 12. At Rhines’ tri­al, pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness­es tes­ti­fied that he was gay and, accord­ing to jurors, “[t]here was lots of dis­cus­sion of homo­sex­u­al­i­ty” dur­ing sen­tenc­ing delib­er­a­tions. ​“There was a lot of dis­gust. … There were lots of folks who were like, ​‘Ew, I can’t believe that.’” In a 2016 sworn state­ment, juror Frances Cersosimo report­ed that one juror said, ​“If he’s gay, we’d be send­ing him where he wants to go” by sen­tenc­ing Rhines to life in an all-male prison. Juror Harry Keeney said in a sworn state­ment, ​“We also knew he was a homo­sex­u­al and thought he shouldn’t be able to spend his life with men in prison.” South Dakota pros­e­cu­tors have asked the Supreme Court to refuse to con­sid­er the civ­il rights groups’ briefs, call­ing the fed­er­al defend­ers office rep­re­sent­ing Rhines ​“an extrem­ist orga­ni­za­tion” and say­ing the peti­tion should ​“not become a cause célèbre for mak­ing Rhines of all peo­ple a false prophet of homosexual rights.”

In 2017, the Court held in Peña-Rodriguez v. Colorado that ​“where a juror makes a clear state­ment that indi­cates he or she relied on racial stereo­types or ani­mus to con­vict a crim­i­nal defen­dant, the Sixth Amendment requires … the tri­al court to con­sid­er the evi­dence of the juror’s state­ment and any result­ing denial of the jury tri­al guar­an­tee.” Rhines’ lawyers are advo­cat­ing that the Court extend that rul­ing to include juror bias against a defendant’s sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion. In an ami­cus brief, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund wrote, ​“Just as the Constitution does not per­mit a per­son to be sen­tenced to die because of his race, it should not per­mit a per­son to be sen­tenced to die because of his sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion.” A brief sub­mit­ted by sev­en LGBTQ rights orga­ni­za­tions said, “[b]ias based on sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion in jury delib­er­a­tions rein­forces his­tor­i­cal prej­u­dice against les­bian, gay, and bisex­u­al peo­ple and under­mines the integri­ty of our judicial system.”

Anti-LGBTQ use of the death penal­ty came under renewed inter­na­tion­al scruti­ny as Brunei pre­pares to put a new law in place that would make adul­tery and homo­sex­u­al sex pun­ish­able by death by ston­ing. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called the law ​“cru­el and inhu­man,” ​“dra­con­ian,” and ​“a seri­ous set­back for human rights pro­tec­tions.” Actor and activist George Clooney urged a boy­cott of hotels owned by Brunei’s monarch, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah. In an op-ed for Deadline, Clooney wrote, ​“every sin­gle time we stay at or take meet­ings at or dine at any of [the Sultan’s] nine hotels we are putting mon­ey direct­ly into the pock­ets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own cit­i­zens for being gay or accused of adul­tery.” Musician Elton John joined Clooney’s call for boy­cotts, say­ing, ​“Discrimination on the basis of sex­u­al­i­ty is plain wrong and has no place in any soci­ety.” ​“I believe that love is love and being able to love as we choose is a basic human right,” John said.

(Adam Liptak, A Jury May Have Sentenced a Man to Death Because He’s Gay. Now, the Supreme Court Could Hear His Appeal., The New York Times, April 1, 2019; Sonia Rao, George Clooney calls for boy­cott of Brunei-owned lux­u­ry hotels in protest of anti-gay death penal­ty, Washington Post, March 30, 2019; Jason Lemon, BRUNEI’S NEW ANTI-LGBT LAW SLAMMED AS ​‘CRUEL AND INHUMAN’ BY U.N. AFTER GEORGE CLOONEY CALLS FOR BOYCOTT, Newsweek, April 1, 2019; Daniel Kreps, Elton John Aligns With George Clooney’s Boycott of Brunei-Owned Hotels, Rolling Stone, March 30, 2019; George Clooney, Boycott Sultan Of Brunei’s Hotels Over Cruel Anti-Gay Laws, Deadline, March 28, 2019.) Read the Supreme Court briefs filed in the Rhines case here. See U.S. Supreme Court and International.

Tags
Citation Guide