WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court appears troubled by the actions of a Georgia prosecutor in disqualifying all the black prospective jurors from the death penalty trial of a black teenager who was accused of killing an elderly white woman.
At least six of the nine justices indicated during arguments Monday that black people were improperly singled out and kept off the jury that eventually sentenced defendant Timothy Tyrone Foster to death in 1987.
Justice Elena Kagan said Foster’s case seemed as clear a violation “as a court is ever going to see” of rules the Supreme Court laid out in 1986 to prevent racial discrimination in the selection of juries.
Foster could win a new trial if the Supreme Court rules his way.
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