SUPREME COURT: “The Supreme Court on Monday [1-8-18] ordered lower courts to consider claims by a black convict from Georgia who alleges his death sentence was tainted with racial bias.
Keith Tharpe was convicted of the 1990 murder of his sister-in-law, Jacquelyn Freeman, who had been accompanying his estranged wife. After shooting Ms. Freeman with a shotgun, Mr. Tharpe kidnapped his wife and allegedly sexually assaulted her. The facts of the case are not in dispute. What is under consideration is whether Mr. Tharpe’s punishment was swayed by bigotry.
In 1998, in an interview with lawyers working on Mr. Tharpe’s appeals, a white juror, Barney Gattie, said he voted for a death sentence because he considered the defendant a ‘nigger,’ in contrast to Ms. Freeman, who he said came ‘a nice black family.’… Mr. Gattie later disputed some of the statements in the affidavit, saying he was drunk at the time he spoke to Mr. Tharpe’s lawyers…
Lower courts rejected Mr. Tharpe’s attempts to reopen his case based on the juror’s remarks. On the day Mr. Tharpe was set to die, Sept. 26, the Supreme Court issued a stay of execution to consider whether to hear his appeal, over the dissent of Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch.
The same three dissented from Monday’s order.”
-Jess Bravin, “Supreme Court Reopens Death Sentence of Black Convict,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 8, 2018 11:39am