Bruce Chatman, Respondent
Beth A. Burton, Counsel of Record
Ever since the Supreme Court decision in Strauder v. West Virginia (1880) it has been unconstitutional to prohibit an individual from serving on a jury based solely because of their race. Subsequent Court decisions have also prohibited attorneys during trial from using their allotted discretionary “strikes” to remove individuals from the juror pool based solely on their race. Timothy Tyrone Foster, convicted of capital murder in 1986, alleges that the Georgia prosecutors in his case violated these legal mandates when they removed all African Americans from his jury pool. Foster says the prosecuting attorney revealed the strategy behind this move…
