Texas Prisoner Seeks Supreme Court Review of Death Sentence Tainted By Racial Bias

Duane Buck, who was sen­tenced to death after a defense expert wit­ness tes­ti­fied that Buck could pose a future dan­ger to soci­ety because he is black, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to grant him a new sen­tenc­ing hear­ing because of his lawyer’s inef­fec­tive­ness. Buck is one of six defen­dants whose Texas cap­i­tal tri­als were iden­ti­fied by a Texas Attorney General’s report as hav­ing been taint­ed by race-based tes­ti­mo­ny by psy­chol­o­gist, Dr. Walter Quijano. The oth­er five were grant­ed new sen­tenc­ing hear­ings after the Texas Attorney General agreed that the ​“infu­sion of race as a fac­tor for the jury to weigh in mak­ing its deter­mi­na­tion vio­lat­ed [the defen­dan­t’s] con­sti­tu­tion­al right to be sen­tenced with­out regard to the col­or of his skin.” However, after a change in the elect­ed Attorney General, Texas opposed a new sen­tenc­ing for Mr. Buck. During Buck’s sen­tenc­ing tri­al, the pros­e­cu­tion asked Quijano — whom it had used as a wit­ness in oth­er cas­es — if, ​“the race fac­tor, black, increas­es the future dan­ger­ous­ness for var­i­ous com­pli­cat­ed rea­sons.” Buck’s lawyer did not object, and Quijano replied, ​“yes.” As Buck stat­ed in a doc­u­men­tary about his case, ​“He was basi­cal­ly say­ing because you’re black, you need to die. My lawyer didn’t say any­thing and nobody else, you know, the pros­e­cu­tor or the judge, nobody did. It was like an every­day thing in the courts.” The state and fed­er­al courts reject­ed Buck’s pri­or chal­lenge based on the pros­e­cu­tor’s con­duct, sug­gest­ing the fault lay with the defense. Buck’s attor­neys now argue that his tri­al lawyer’s fail­ure to object to Quijano’s tes­ti­mo­ny con­sti­tut­ed inef­fec­tive assis­tance of coun­sel, in vio­la­tion of his Sixth Amendment rights. The low­er courts turned down that appeal as well, and Buck filed this peti­tion for writ of cer­tio­rari ask­ing the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case.

(C. Tolan, ​“Prosecutors said this death row inmate was dan­ger­ous because he’s black. Now he’s ask­ing the Supreme Court for a new tri­al,” Fusion, February 9, 2016; A. Turner, ​“Lawyers for Houston killer Duane Buck turn to U.S. Supreme Court, Attorneys want to ensure race did not influ­ence sen­tenc­ing,” Houston Chronicle, February 5, 2016.) Read Duane Buck’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari here. See Race and Arbitrariness.