Racial Discrimination in Death-Penalty Jury Selection

Discussions With DPI

Stephen B. Bright, the for­mer President of the Southern Center for Human Rights, dis­cuss­es the ongo­ing prob­lem of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in jury selec­tion in death-penal­ty cas­es — an issue he has argued three times in the U.S. Supreme Court. He speaks with DPIC’s Anne Holsinger about the most recent of those cas­es, Foster v. Chatman, in which the Court grant­ed Mr. Foster a new tri­al as a result of inten­tion­al dis­crim­i­na­tion by Columbus, Georgia pros­e­cu­tors. He explains how the pros­e­cu­tors’ notes, a piece of evi­dence that is rarely avail­able, were crit­i­cal in prov­ing that pros­e­cu­tors had tar­get­ed African-American jurors because of their race, and describes new­ly obtained jury selec­tion notes that show Columbus pros­e­cu­tors sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly struck African-American jurors in at least sev­en oth­er cap­i­tal cas­es. Mr. Bright explains why cur­rent law pro­vides an insuf­fi­cient rem­e­dy for this prob­lem and offers sug­ges­tions to pre­vent the per­va­sive exclu­sion of peo­ple of col­or from death-penalty juries.