Supreme Court declines appeal citing juror's racial slur in post-conviction affidavit
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to consider whether the courts can consider a juror’s affidavit that uses a racial slur to describe the defendant who was sentenced to death in 1997.
The court denied cert Monday in the case of death-row inmate Kenneth Fults, who contends he was deprived of a fair trial because of racial bias, the Associated Press and Raw Story report. At issue is whether federal courts may consider the affidavit because it wasn’t submitted on direct appeal.
The now-deceased juror was 79 when he gave the affidavit to an investigator for Fults in 2005. In the affidavit, the juror says: “I don’t know if he ever killed anybody, but that n—– got just what should have happened. Once he pled guilty, I knew I would vote for the death penalty because that’s what that n—- deserved.”
Lawyers for Fults had contended the juror bias claim wasn’t defaulted because nothing in the record indicated that the juror was biased. The case is Fults v. Chatman.
