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| Judge Orders New Trial for Inmate |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 12/21/2001 |
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A judge Wednesday ordered a new trial for a Pennsylvania death row inmate, saying the prosecutor engaged in a pattern of racial discrimination during jury selection. Judge David N. Savitt said the jury selection process 'fatally'' prejudiced the trial against William Basemore, who was convicted of the 1986 stabbing death of a security guard during a restaurant robbery. The prosecutor in the case used preemptory challenges to eliminate 19 potential jurors, all of whom were black. The judge said there was "a conscious strategy to exclude'' black jurors. 'This court has carefully reviewed the trial prosecutor's explanations of his use of preemptory challenges and finds them insufficient,'' Savitt said. In the mid-1980s, the same prosecutor was videotaped lecturing a group of young prosecutors on jury selection and detailed how to exclude potential jurors who are black. The contents of the tape "constitute direct evidence of the prosecutor's motivations at least at the time the tape was made, and may constitute circumstantial evidence of what occurred in the selection of the jury at Basemore's trial,'' Savitt said. The district attorney's office said in a statement it is reviewing the judge's opinion to determine whether an appeal is 'appropriate.'' Basemore isn't likely to get out of prison anytime soon. Last month, he was charged with the 1985 fatal stabbing of a teacher. |
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