Inmate gets new appeal because juror questioned if ‘Black people have souls’
The Supreme Court grants appeal within minutes of man being executed
The Supreme Court grants appeal within minutes of man being executed
On Monday, the Supreme Court decided to give a new appeal to a man who came within minutes of being executed.
In a 6-3 decision, the Court ordered the federal appeals court in Atlanta to take another look at the case of Keith Leroy Tharpe, who was convicted 27 years ago of killing Jacquelin Freeman, his sister-in-law.
In August of 1990, Tharpe’s wife left him and took her four daughters to go live with her mother. A month later, she and her brother’s wife were driving when Tharpe used his truck to block them and then ordered them out of the car with a shotgun.
Freeman was killed during an argument about whether Tharpe would take his estranged wife with him, according to Tharpe’s lawyers.
Racist juror
The appeal looks particularly at a white juror named Barney Gattie, who admitted in 1998 during an interview with Tharpe’s legal team that his study of the Bible had him questioning “if black people even have souls.” He also freely used racial slurs.
Despite signing an affidavit, Gattie, who has since passed away, insisted that he voted to convict Tharpe because of the evidence, not his racist beliefs.
In the majority opinion, the Court said that the “remarkable affidavit” provides strong evidence that “Tharpe’s race affected Gattie’s vote for a death verdict.”
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented from the majority opinion. Thomas wrote in the dissenting opinion that the Court’s decision amounted to “ceremonial handwringing” and that Tharpe would ultimately lose his appeal anyway.
“The court’s decision is no profile in moral courage,” Thomas wrote.
Thomas also wrote that the Court was letting Gattie’s “odious opinions” get in the way of justice. The decision, he wrote, “callously delays justice” for Freeman. He also wrote that the “useless do-over” at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta would end up denying the appeal.
