he US supreme court threw out the conviction of an African-American man who was tried six times for a quadruple murder, saying the exclusion of black jurors was unconstitutional.
In a 7-2 decision, the nine-member supreme court found that prosecutors had exercised racial bias by striking potential black jurors and they reversed Flowers’ conviction. “In the six trials combined, the state employed its peremptory challenges to strike 41 of the 42 black prospective jurors,” said justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the majority. “At the sixth trial, in an apparent effort to find pre-textual reasons to strike black prospective jurors, the state engaged in dramatically disparate questioning of black and white prospective jurors.”
Flowers was arrested several months after the murders, when two witnesses said they saw him near the scene of the crime. He has maintained his innocence.by journalist Madeleine Baran and a radio colleague from American Public Media.
These Americans must really end their flawed jury system.