Timothy Foster has spent nearly 30 years on Georgia’s death row. His lawyer was to speak before the US Supreme Court yesterday to argue for his life, pointing to endemic racism in US jury selection and the death penalty.
Foster, an African American, was charged with the 1986 rape and murder of 79-year-old widow Queen Madge White.
The prosecutor in the case removed all black potential jurors and called for a death sentence to “deter other people out there in the projects,” referring to public housing.
During court proceedings, Foster obtained previously withheld notes from the prosecution showing prosecutors had highlighted the names of potential jurors who were black and marked them with a “B.”
On separate juror questionnaires, the word “black” was circled next to the “race” question.
“It was clear that the priority of the prosecutor was to strike the blacks,” said Foster’s lawyer, Stephen Bright.
In a brief filed to the court, Bright said: “The evidence clearly establishes purposeful discrimination by the prosecution in securing an all-white jury” to obtain a death sentence and thus teach a lesson to “people out there in the projects.”
A psychiatrist also testified at trial that Foster was “in the borderline range for intellectual disability.”
His IQ scores ranged from just 58 to 80 throughout his life, the psychiatrist said.
He is one of about 42 percent of death-row inmates who are black, according to civil rights group the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
African Americans make up 12 percent of the US population of 319 million.
In the end, Foster was unanimously found guilty by a jury of 12 white people.
The Supreme Court, guardian of the US Constitution, has strictly prohibited jury selection decisions based on race, in various decisions.
“This is not a problem that has gone away, this is not a problem that is limited to the deep south,” said Christina Swarns, an expert on issues of race and criminal justice at the NAACP. “This problem really persists throughout the country.”
“In most instances, there are no consequences whatsoever to a prosecutor who engages in jury discrimination in jury selection,” she added.
A study conducted in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, showed that blacks are three times more likely than whites to be struck out of jury selection.
Swarns pointed to several studies showing that “diverse juries are far more thorough and effective than all-white juries,” and namely make fewer factual errors.
Paradoxically, the ability to strike a juror has its roots in British law to protect the accused from the Crown.
This right has since been extended to prosecutors, who in turn are well aware that white juries are more severe than multi-ethnic juries, and that minorities are less inclined to back the death penalty.
An initial stage of jury selection is represented by a lengthy written questionnaire that is supposed to disqualify sectarian or politically motivated individuals.
“In many jurisdictions, you get more peremptory challenges in capital cases than in other case, so the combination of disqualification and peremptory challenges disproportionately affects jurors of color,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
As a result, defendants facing trial in cities with large black minorities often face an all-white jury.
“Given that we have these very high-profile, racially charged cases going in to courtrooms and possibly to juries, it’s critically important that we have a process that incorporates all qualified citizens,” Swarns said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not