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| Supreme Court Delays Execution of Texas Man |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 02/22/2002 |
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The U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution Wednesday to a black man who contends prosecutors deliberately kept blacks off the jury at his murder trial in 1986. Justice Antonin Scalia granted the stay one day before Thomas Miller-El, 50, was set to die by injection. The case could be used by the Supreme Court to clarify what evidence a court can consider when reviewing a claim that a jury was racially stacked. Miller-El was convicted in the 1985 robbery-slaying of a desk clerk at a hotel near the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. During jury selection, prosecutors used peremptory challenges to reject 10 of 11 blacks. Peremptory challenges allow lawyers to dismiss prospective jurors without explanation. The jury ultimately consisted of nine whites, one Filipino, one Hispanic and one black. Miller-El's lawyer argued there was a long-standing discriminatory policy among Dallas County prosecutors. Texas authorities denied there was any discrimination and said much of the historical data was out of date or irrelevant. ''To be truthful, unhappy is not a term I would use,'' Miller-El said, sitting in the visiting area at the Polunsky Unit, the Texas prison system's death row. ''I've learned to not really be optimistic until something occurs to cause me to be sincerely optimistic.'' |
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