Supreme Court to Review Mississippi Death Row Inmate’s Case
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to consider the appeal of a Black death row inmate from Mississippi, Terry Pitchford, whose case was influenced by a prosecutor known for excluding Black jurors for discriminatory purposes. This development follows a federal judge’s initial decision to overturn Pitchford’s murder conviction, which was later reinstated by an appeals court.
This case involves Doug Evans, a former District Attorney previously implicated in a Supreme Court decision that overturned the conviction and death sentence of Curtis Flowers in 2019. The upcoming hearing is scheduled for spring.
U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills criticized the trial judge for not allowing Pitchford’s attorney sufficient opportunity to contest the prosecution’s exclusion of Black jurors. Mills’ decision was partly influenced by Evans’ past actions in similar cases.
Pitchford received a death sentence for his involvement in the 2004 murder of Reuben Britt, owner of the Crossroads Grocery near Grenada, Mississippi. During jury selection, the original pool of 61 white and 35 Black members was reduced to 36 white and five Black jurors. Many Black jurors were removed after expressing opposition to the death penalty, and prosecutors dismissed four more Black jurors, leaving only one Black juror on the final panel.
In 1986, the Supreme Court aimed to eliminate racial discrimination in jury selection through its decision in Batson v. Kentucky. The ruling prohibited dismissing jurors based on race and introduced a process for trial judges to assess discrimination claims and the prosecutors’ race-neutral justifications.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in the Supreme Court’s ruling for Flowers, stated that Evans had made a “relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of Black individuals.” Flowers, who faced six trials for the murders of four people, was released in 2019, and the charges were dropped in 2020 after Evans handed the case to state authorities.
