The US Supreme Court issued Georgia death row inmate Keith Tharpe a stay of execution last week because of racial bias from a juror who sentenced him back in 1990 for the murder of his sister-in-law, Jacquelin Freeman.
The justices granted him the stay while they decide if they will take up the appeal. If they decide against it, the stay will be lifted and Tharpe will be executed despite racial bias.
Tharpe’s attorneys argued that juror Barney Gattie violated his constitutional rights to a fair trial in his 1998 affidavit, when he referenced Tharpe using the n-word and wondered if “black people even have souls.” His attorneys further argued that he is ineligible for execution because he is intellectually disabled.
This furthers the argument that capital punishment is inundated with bias. The decision between death and life in prison rests not only on the severity of the crime, but also race and income.
Unfortunately, this kind of blatant racism is not an anomoly, even in capital cases. To learn more about this case and others in which overt racism played a clear role in capital sentencing, click here.