• Listen to this segment

GUEST: Marcia Widder, Litigation Director of the Capital Appeals Project of New Orleans

Last week, the conviction and death sentence of a black Louisiana man was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 7-2 ruling, justices concluded that Allen Snyder had not received a fair trial due to the discriminatory elimination of a black juror from his case. The former death row inmate had been found guilty by an all-white jury in 1996 for the murder of his estranged wife’s boyfriend. At the time of the original trial, Allen Synder’s defense attorneys claimed that three of five black potential jurors had been eliminated solely because of their race. Now, a majority of Supreme Court justices concluded that the trial judge had “committed clear error,” by allowing a potential black juror to be excluded from the jury pool by the prosecutor. Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia were the only two dissenting opinions. Before last week’s decision, Snyder’s conviction and sentence had been previously upheld by the Louisiana State Supreme Court which said race played no part in the composition of the jury. Now, thanks to the federal Supreme Court decision, Allen Snyder will receive a new trial.

For more information, visit www.thejusticecenter.org/cap/cap.html