Timothy Tyrone Foster, Petitioner
Stephen B. Bright, Counsel of Record
Timothy Tyrone Foster, an 18-year-old African American, was arrested in 1986 for the murder of Queen Madge White, an elderly white woman who lived in Rome, Georgia. During his trial, prosecutors used four of their nine allotted “strikes” to remove black prospective jurors. The resulting all-white jury found Foster guilty and sentenced him to death. Foster appealed the verdict, arguing that the exclusion of black jurors violated his constitutional right to a fair trial. His lawyers would later discover prosecution documents that showed black jurors were highlighted, with particular attention paid to potentially disqualifying attributes. Foster requested that a Georgia…
