The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit over­turned a Texas defen­dan­t’s con­vic­tion and death sen­tence because of racial bias by the pros­e­cu­tion in jury selec­tion. Jonathan Reed, the defen­dant, had been con­vict­ed in 1979 of mur­der dur­ing a tri­al at which all five of the eli­gi­ble African-American poten­tial jurors were removed by the pros­e­cu­tion. The Fifth Circuit, which has upheld many death sen­tences from the state with the most exe­cu­tions in the coun­try, based its rul­ing on the U.S. Supreme Court’s hold­ing in Miller-El v. Dretke (2005), which it found to have ​“vir­tu­al­ly iden­ti­cal facts” regard­ing the way the jury was selected.

In con­clu­sion, the court said, ​“In sum, a care­ful exam­i­na­tion of the record reveals that the State’s assert­ed rea­sons for strik­ing prospec­tive black jurors … were mere pre­texts for dis­crim­i­na­tion.… [T]he com­par­a­tive analy­sis demon­strates what was real­ly going on: the pros­e­cu­tion used its peremp­to­ry chal­lenges to ensure that African-Americans would not serve on Reed’s jury.” The court also not­ed the same his­tor­i­cal evi­dence of racial bias in the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office as was found in Miller-El.

The court said it was reluc­tant to grant a new tri­al in a case that was already 30 years old, but held that jus­tice required the rever­sal: ​“Although we do not rel­ish adding a new chap­ter to this unfor­tu­nate sto­ry more than thir­ty years after the crime took place, we con­clude that the Constitution affords Reed a right to relief.”

(Reed v. Quarterman, No. 05 – 70046 (5th Cir. Jan. 12, 2009). See Race and Supreme Court.

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