DENIED

SCOTUS Rejects Death Row Inmate’s Appeal Over Racial Bias

In his appeal, Kristopher Love pointed out that a juror at his murder trial had claimed non-white races are statistically more prone to violence.

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a Texan on death row who alleged a juror in his 2018 trial was racially biased. In his appeal, Kristopher Love pointed out that during jury selection, a juror claimed non-white races are statistically more prone to violence. Love was convicted and sentenced to death for killing Dr. Kendra Hatcher, a pediatric dentist, in Dallas through a murder-for-hire scheme. The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas said the trial was fair because Love had been given two peremptory opportunities to reject jurors, but used them before the allegedly biased juror was evaluated. SCOTUS denied Love’s appeal 6-3; for the dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote: “When racial bias infects a jury in a capital case, it deprives a defendant of his right to an impartial tribunal in a life-or-death context, and it ‘poisons public confidence’ in the judicial process.”