Supreme Court allows new trial over jury Racial bias
/The Supreme Court allowed a new trial to proceed
Monday for a black man sentenced to death 18 years ago in a case in
which prosecutors improperly restricted opportunities for blacks to
serve on his jury. The court, with comment, declined to hear
Philadelphia's appeal in the case of Arnold Holloway, 62, who allegedly
murdered a fellow drug dealer in 1980. Monday's action represents a
defeat for Philadelphia prosecutors, who have seen a string of
convictions set aside in recent years because of claims they tried to
keep minorities off jury pools in cases involving black defendants.
Holloway was convicted in 1986 by a jury of nine whites and three
blacks, plus two white alternate jurors, after prosecutors used 11 of
their 12 peremptory challenges during jury selection to eliminate
blacks. In legal filings, the district attorney's office denied racial
bias was a factor and argued there were other reasons for the
exclusions, such as the fear that a juror "might well have known some
of the people involved in this case." [more]
