On June 25, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review a cap­i­tal case from Louisiana in which an all-white jury sen­tenced a defen­dant to death after the pros­e­cu­tor urged a death sen­tence so that the defen­dant would not ​“get away with it” like O.J. Simpson. All five qual­i­fied African-Americans had been struck from the jury pool by the pros­e­cu­tion using peremp­to­ry chal­lenges. The defense has chal­lenged the selec­tion of the jury as a vio­la­tion of equal pro­tec­tion.

The defen­dant, Allen Snyder, is black and was con­vict­ed of killing his wife’s male com­pan­ion in a tri­al that occurred with­in a year of the O.J. Simpson acquit­tal. Jelpi Picou, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the the Capital Appeals Project of Louisiana which is rep­re­sent­ing Mr. Snyder, said that, ​“Both a major­i­ty of the Louisiana Supreme Court and the State have denied that these state­ments demon­strat­ed racial­ly dis­crim­i­na­to­ry intent” not­ed Mr. Picou, ​“because the pros­e­cu­tor did not state the self-evi­dent: that Mr. Snyder and Mr. Simpson are black. Given that Mr. Snyder’s tri­al took place less than a year after O.J. Simpson’s acquit­tal, it is dif­fi­cult to imag­ine that the mem­bers of Mr. Snyder’s jury would not have been aware of the racial­ly divi­sive nature of that case.” The case is Snyder v. Louisiana, No. 06 – 10119, and it will like­ly be heard by Court in the fall.
(Press Release, Capital Appeals Project, June 25, 2007). Read the Press Release. See also Race.

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