Justice Brett #Kavanaugh & Chief Justice #JohnRoberts broke from their #conservative colleagues in siding with Pitchford.

Justice Neil M. #Gorsuch wrote a dissenting opinion, joined by Justices #ClarenceThomas, Samuel A. #Alito Jr. & #AmyConeyBarrett.

“Put simply, Mr. Pitchford’s account of a muzzled defense team is hard to square with the record. But even if it were a plausible account, that still would not be enough,” Gorsuch wrote.

#law #racism #SCOTUS #DeathRow #RacialBias #JurySelection

In 2019, #SCOTUS reversed the conviction of another #Black #Mississippi man, Curtis Flowers, whom #DougEvans also prosecuted in a capital murder case. Flowers was tried 6 times. The justices found, 7-2, that Evans — now retired — had worked relentlessly to keep Black people off the #jury.


#law #racism #DeathRow #RacialBias #JurySelection

For two decades, Pitchford had argued his conviction was not valid, pointing to what he said were racially biased selections of the jurors who heard the case. Only one of the 12 jurors was #Black — in a county that was 40% African American, according to Pitchford’s filings. More troubling, Pitchford says, is that those jurors were selected by #DougEvans, a prosecutor with a history of maneuvering to keep Black people off juries.

#law #racism #SCOTUS #DeathRow #RacialBias #JurySelection