In a 6 – 3 deci­sion on November 20, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied a request from death row inmate Duane Buck for a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing, despite the fact that racial­ly prej­u­di­cial state­ments had been made dur­ing his tri­al. While the jury was being asked to con­sid­er if Buck would be a future dan­ger to soci­ety, a psy­chol­o­gist tes­ti­fied that African Americans com­mit a dis­pro­por­tion­ate num­ber of crim­i­nal offens­es. Buck’s case was one of sev­en iden­ti­fied in 2000 by then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn in which tes­ti­mo­ny link­ing race to future dan­ger­ous­ness was imper­mis­si­bly used. The oth­er six defen­dants received new sen­tenc­ing hear­ings, but Buck did not because his case was still in the ear­ly stages of appeal. Three judges dis­sent­ed, writ­ing, The record in this case reveals a chron­i­cle of inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion at every stage of the pro­ceed­ings, the integri­ty of which is fur­ther called into ques­tion by the admis­sion of racist and inflam­ma­to­ry tes­ti­mo­ny from an expert wit­ness at the pun­ish­ment stage.” Buck’s attor­neys said they will appeal: We will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the impor­tant due process and equal pro­tec­tion issues at stake in Mr. Buck’s case, and we are hope­ful that the Supreme Court will inter­vene to right this unequiv­o­cal wrong,” they said.

(M. Graczyk, Split Texas court rejects con­demned man’s appeal,” Associated Press, November 20, 2013). See Arbitrariness and Race. Read the dis­sent­ing opin­ion, Ex parte Duane Edward Buck, No. WR-57,004 – 03; read the Press Release from Duane Buck’s attor­neys (Nov. 202013).

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