In a 6 – 3 deci­sion, the Supreme Court ruled that Thomas Miller-El, a Texas death row inmate, is enti­tled to a new tri­al in light of strong evi­dence of racial bias dur­ing jury selec­tion at his orig­i­nal tri­al. In choos­ing a jury to try Miller-El, a black defen­dant, pros­e­cu­tors struck 10 of the 11 qual­i­fied black pan­elists. The Supreme Court said that the deci­sion by the Texas court find­ing no dis­crim­i­na­tion in the process ​“blinks real­i­ty” and was unrea­son­able and erro­neous in light of the sig­nif­i­cant evi­dence of dis­crim­i­na­tion.

Justice Souter, writ­ing for the major­i­ty, set out the evi­dence that race gov­erned who was allowed on the jury, includ­ing: dis­parate ques­tion­ing of white and black jurors, jury ​“shuf­fling,” a cul­ture of bias with­in the prosecutor’s office, and the fact that the prosecutor’s race-neu­tral expla­na­tions for the strikes were so far at odds with the evi­dence that the expla­na­tions them­selves indi­cate discriminatory intent.

The deci­sion serves as a mod­el for the low­er courts in apply­ing the Supreme Court’s opin­ion in Batson v. Kentucky, where it held it is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al to strike jurors sole­ly on the basis of race. Today’s deci­son found that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit should have over­turned the Texas court’s denial of relief. Miller-el will be grant­ed a new tri­al. The case is Miller-El v. Dretke, No. 03 – 9659. (Associated Press, June 13, 2005). Read the com­plete deci­sion. See DPIC’s page on the Miller-El case. See also Race. To view a video (need RealPlayer) about the Miller-El case, click here.
In a relat­ed case, Johnson v. California, the Court today struck down California’s stan­dard for review­ing Batson v. Kentucky chal­lenges as too demand­ing. California required a defen­dant to present not mere­ly enough evi­dence to per­mit an infer­ence that dis­crim­i­na­tion has occurred, but suf­fi­cient­ly strong evi­dence to estab­lish that the chal­lenges, if not explained, were more like­ly than not based on race. The case is Johnson v. California, No. 04 – 6964.

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