Andre Thomas — who removed his eyes and ate one while in prison — claimed he went before a biased jury in his 2005 trial, where he was sentenced to death for killing his estranged wife and two children in a crime he said God told him to commit.
| So he’s a nutter, or pretended to be. It sounds like he didn’t get better while in prison. |
...and dead...
The inmate claimed the all-white jury convicted him because they didn’t approve of interracial marriage. At least three expressed the racist belief, with one allegedly noting on a questionnaire, "I think we should stay with our Blood Line."
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to toss out Thomas’ case. The court’s three liberal judges chose to dissent, arguing Thomas’s conviction and death sentence
...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead...should be overturned because his attorneys did not try to prevent the three jurors from serving.
"No jury deciding whether to recommend a death sentence should be tainted by potential racial biases that could infect its deliberations or decision, particularly where the case involved an interracial crime," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote. Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined Sotomayor’s opinion.
Texas officials had asked the Supreme Court not to entertain Thomas’ appeal, claiming his attorneys questioned the jurors "extensively" about racial prejudices prior to trial and decided the jurors could provide an impartial decision.