A jury of one's peers? Not in Mississippi - Sotomayor dissents in Clark v. Mississippi (06/30/2023)

Mississippi Goddamn, as Nina Simone sang.  Another day another disgraceful decision.  The Supreme Court has allowed a conviction in a capital case to stand despite powerful evidence that the jury was not  composed of Terrell Clark's African American peers. - GWC

22-6057 Clark v. Mississippi (06/30/2023)

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR, with whom JUSTICE KAGAN and JUSTICE JACKSON join, dissenting from the denial of certiorari. Just a few years ago, this Court took an admirable stand to defend its landmark decision in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U. S. 79 (1986). Batson plays a vital role in preserving the integrity of our judicial system by ensuring that people are not prevented from serving as jurors because of their race. Yet not all courts were heeding Batson’s command. In particular, the Mississippi Supreme Court rejected evidence that a juror was struck based on his race in a death penalty case, where the stakes could not have been higher. In reversing that decision, this Court emphasized the importance of “vigorously enforc[ing] and reinforc[ing]” Batson and the need to “guar[d] against any backsliding.” Flowers v. Mississippi, 588 U. S. ___, ___ (2019) (slip op., at 16). That decision was a powerful articulation of the equal protection principles that Batson vindicates. 

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After the State had used all of its peremptory strikes, however, “[t]he jury ultimately consisted of eleven white jurors, one black juror, and two white alternate jurors.” Ibid. Black jurors had thus dwindled down to 7 percent. To get there, at the peremptory strike stage, the State struck seven out of the eight remaining Black prospective jurors, or “87.5 percent of the black jurors it encountered and only 16.7 percent of the white jurors.” Ibid. In other words, the State was over five times more likely to strike a Black prospective juror than a white one. These are the kinds of numbers that in the past this Court has found to be evidence of discrimination. For example, the Court found there was statistical evidence of discrimination when an initial venire panel was 18.5 percent Black, the peremptory strike rate of eligible Black venire members was 91 percent, and only one Black juror ended up on the jury. See Miller-El v. Dretke, 545 U. S. 231, 240– 241 (2005). 

These numbers are quite similar to those here.