OP-ED: Black Woman Denied Opportunity to Serve as a Juror in Georgia Capital Trial Cites Concerns About Racial Bias

In a March 26, 2024, op-ed pub­lished in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Patricia McTier, a Georgia nurse, recounts her expe­ri­ence being removed from a jury pool in 1998 for what she calls a ​“ques­tion­able rea­son” relat­ed to her race. Born and raised in Appling County, Georgia, Ms. McTier grew up in the Jim Crow era and writes that she ​“enter[ed] adult­hood dur­ing a time of great social change,” where she grew to ​“cher­ish our American sys­tem of jus­tice and the Constitution that endows all of us with equal rights.” In September 1998, Ms. McTier was called for jury duty for the cap­i­tal mur­der tri­al of Warren King, a young Black man who was fac­ing the death penal­ty for the rob­bery and mur­der of a white con­ve­nience store employee.

During voir dire for Mr. King’s case, Ms. McTier was asked about her knowl­edge of Mr. King’s case and her views on the death penal­ty. She answered that she knew next to noth­ing about Mr. King’s case and agreed she could impose the death penal­ty if nec­es­sary. Days lat­er, Ms. McTier learned she had not been select­ed to serve on the jury but was nev­er told why she was not cho­sen. Nearly all (sev­en of eight) Black peo­ple in the jury pool, includ­ing Ms. McTier, were struck, while just three of 34 poten­tial white jurors were removed.

In the years fol­low­ing Mr. King’s tri­al and con­vic­tion, Ms. McTier learned that the pros­e­cu­tor on Mr. King’s case, John Johnson, had a long­stand­ing prac­tice of using his ​“peremp­to­ry strikes to dis­crim­i­nate against Black and female poten­tial jurors.” She also learned DA Johnson’s expla­na­tion for remov­ing her from the jury pool: he claimed she would have been biased against his office because he was pros­e­cut­ing one of her husband’s rel­a­tives. But Ms. McTier writes that she ​“didn’t know any­thing about [the relative’s] pos­si­ble crim­i­nal involve­ment or legal trou­ble” and that ​“noth­ing going on with him would have had any bear­ing on [her] ver­dict in [Mr.] King’s case.” The fact that Mr. Johnson nev­er asked her any ques­tions about the rel­a­tive now leads Ms. McTier to believe that her race was the true rea­son she was excluded.

Ms. McTier writes that ​“it is hurt­ful to think that the pros­e­cu­tor, who rep­re­sents the state of Georgia, kept us from serv­ing on the jury in a death penal­ty case because of the col­or of our skin,” which is in direct vio­la­tion of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1986 rul­ing in Batson v. Kentucky, which held that it is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al to strike poten­tial jurors because of their race.

Prosecutors in Georgia have a long his­to­ry of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion against Black peo­ple in jury selec­tion process­es, as report­ed by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), which has doc­u­ment­ed how many dis­trict attorney’s offices express­ly train their pros­e­cu­tors on how to exclude peo­ple of col­or from serv­ing on juries and avoid sanc­tions. Since Mr. King’s tri­al, Ms. McTier has sat on oth­er juries and has ​“ful­filled [her] civic duty,” yet that ​“does not lessen the pain of real­iz­ing [she] was kept off [Mr.] King’s jury because of her race.”

In clos­ing, Ms. McTier writes that she is ​“deeply trou­bled” by the prospect that Mr. King faces a pos­si­ble exe­cu­tion date despite hav­ing ​“a tri­al marked by such bla­tant racial dis­crim­i­na­tion.” While she can­not know if the ver­dict would have been dif­fer­ent had she sat on the jury, she does ​“know that jus­tice was not served by the prosecutor’s efforts to remove Black peo­ple from the jury.” With all the infor­ma­tion that has come to light, Ms. McTier writes that ​“it seems uncon­scionable to allow [Mr. King’s] death sen­tence to stand.” The United States Supreme Court is cur­rent­ly con­sid­er­ing whether to accept Mr. King’s peti­tion for cer­tio­rari, which argues he should receive a new trial.