Saying that the “law punishes people for what they do, not who they are,” the Supreme Court on February 22, 2017, granted relief to Duane Buck (pictured, right), a Texas death-row prisoner who was sentenced to death after his own lawyer presented testimony from a psychologist who told the jury Buck was more likely to commit future acts of violence because he is black. Writing for the six-Justice majority, Chief Justice Roberts (pictured, left) said that “[d]ispensing punishment on the basis of an immutable characteristic flatly contravenes this guiding principle.”
Buck’s case turned on the legal question of whether his lawyer had provided ineffective assistance. The Court left no doubt on the issue. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that “[n]o competent defense attorney would introduce such evidence about his own client.”
Despite counsel’s deficient representation, the lower federal courts had refused to intervene, asserting that the references to race in the case had been brief and would have had only minimal, if any, effect on the jury’s sentencing decision. The Chief Justice squarely rejected that conclusion, writing: “when a jury hears expert testimony that expressly makes a defendant’s race directly pertinent on the question of life or death, the impact of that evidence cannot be measured simply by how much air time it received at trial or how many pages it occupies in the record. Some toxins can be deadly in small doses.” The Court explained that stereotyping black men as somehow more violence-prone than others is a “particularly noxious strain of racial prejudice.”
Buck’s attorney, Christina Swarns, who had argued the case before the Court in October 2016, said “Today, the Supreme Court made clear that there is no place for racial bias in the American criminal justice system.” The decision, she said, reaffirms “the longstanding principle that criminal punishments—particularly the death penalty—cannot be based on immutable characteristics such as race.”
Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, dissented.
(L. Hurley, “U.S. top court backs Texas death row inmate in race case,” Reuters, February 22, 2017; P. Williams, “Supreme Court Says Racial Testimony Biased Sentencing,” NBC News, February 22, 2017; “SCOTUS Rules Duane Buck Entitled to New Sentencing Hearing in Texas Racial Bias Death Penalty Case,” Press Release from Duane Buck Defense Lawyers, February 22, 2017.) Read the opinion.
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