U.S. Supreme Court Overturns Georgia Man's Death Row Conviction

WASHINGTON, DC -- A black Georgia man sentenced to death 29 years ago by an all-white jury for raping and killing an elderly white woman may be getting a new trial.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Timothy Tyrone Foster, who was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1987 murder of Queen Madge White. The court's 7-1 ruling found that prosecutors violated the Constitution by deliberately excluding African-Americans from the jury.

Twenty years after Foster's conviction, his attorneys obtained notes from prosecutors that detailed their efforts to keep African Americans from the jury. Stephen Bright, Foster's attorney and president of the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights, said prosecutors marked the names of black prospective jurors with a “B” and highlighted each black juror’s name in green.

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Prosecutors also circled the word “black” next to the “race” question on the juror questionnaires of five prospective black jurors, Bright said. Also, three black prospective jurors as B#1, B#2, and B#3 in their notes, and lists were created that prioritized striking black prospective jurors over any white prospective jurors.

"The prosecution’s notes, which were discovered and introduced as evidence, left no doubt that the strikes were motivated by race to get an all-white jury," Bright said. "Prosecutors then asked the jury to sentence Foster to death to deter people in the projects, which were 90 percent black."

Attorneys representing the state argued that prosecutors were simply preparing themselves for a racial bias challenge. But "the state's new argument today does not dissuade us from the conclusion that its prosecutors were motivated in substantial part by race," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the court's majority decision.

"The focus on race in the prosecution's file plainly demonstrates a concerted effort to keep black prospective jurors off the jury."

Justice Clarence Thomas was the only dissenter in the decision. Thomas, a native of Georgia, recounted Foster's confession at having murdered the 79-year-old retired schoolteacher after assaulting her. Thomas also said the Court should have respected the decisions of Georgia state court judges who had previously ruled on the case.

Bright said Foster was 18 at the time of the crime, and argued that Foster not only was poor but also mentally challenged.

The murder happened in Floyd County, a community northwest of Atlanta and whose county seat is Rome.

The Court heard the case in November 2015, at which time CBS News reported that Foster did not deny killing White.

"Jury strikes motivated by race cannot be tolerated," Bright said. "The exclusion of black citizens from jury service results in juries that do not represent their communities and undermines the credibility and legitimacy of the criminal justice system.”

Image: Georgia Department of Corrections