WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court sent a message to prosecutors and judges Wednesday that it would cast a skeptical eye on the exclusion of blacks from juries.
The justices, by a 7-2 vote, threw out a death sentence and murder conviction because a Louisiana prosecutor kept blacks off the jury in a trial he called his "O.J. Simpson case."
Though the high court had ruled that jurors cannot be excused solely because of their race, the practice has continued, often with the approval of judges, legal scholars said.
The court's ruling Wednesday indicates that judges should be less receptive to prosecutors' explanations, Freedman said.
The justices said state prosecutor Jim Williams improperly excluded blacks from the jury that convicted Allen Snyder of killing his estranged wife's companion. Snyder is black, and the jurors were white.
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, said the trial judge should have blocked Williams from barring a black juror. Alito's opinion made no mention of Simpson.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented. Thomas said he would not "second-guess" the judge.
During jury selection in the trial, Williams disqualified all five black prospective jurors. The Supreme Court ruled in 1986 that prosecutors may not exclude people from a jury solely because of their race. The court already had sent Snyder's case back to the Louisiana courts following a ruling in 2005 that bolstered the prohibition on race bias in jury selection.
The prosecutor's explanation for striking a prospective black juror was "suspicious," said Alito. The prospective juror's supervisor said he did not think a schedule conflict between the upcoming trial and the prospective juror's work would be a problem.
In contrast, the prosecutor accepted white jurors who disclosed conflicting obligations "that appear to have been at least as serious as" those of the prospective black juror who was excused, Alito wrote.
• The case is Snyder v. Louisiana, 06-10119.
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