The Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal from a Texas death row inmate who claimed his case was not fairly decided because some members of the all-white jury were opposed to interracial marriage.
In an unsigned order, the high court denied the appeal by Andre Thomas, a black inmate who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2005 by a jury in Sherman, Texas, over the murder of his wife, who was white, their biracial son, and her daughter from a different relationship.
Three members of the all-white jury that convicted Thomas had previously expressed opposition to interracial marriage, according to his newest slate of attorneys. However, Thomas’s original attorneys had argued he was not guilty by reason of insanity. Texas held that the defendant’s condition was “voluntary” due to a prior history of drug abuse.
TEXAS INMATE WHO WON RELIGIOUS RIGHTS CASE TO DIE BY LETHAL INJECTION
His previous attorneys also did not seek to remove the apparently biased jurors at the time, as is permitted under court rules.
In a 12-page dissent, the court’s three Democratic-appointed Justices Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Sonia Sotomayor contended that the “errors in this case render Thomas’ death sentence not only unreliable, but unconstitutional.”
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“As a result, Thomas was convicted and sentenced to death by a jury that included three jurors who expressed bias against him,” the liberal minority bloc wrote.
The high court’s denial leaves in place a lower appeals court judgment and maintains Thomas’s death sentence. He presently does not have an execution date.
