Alabama violated the constitutional rights of death sentenced people, court rules

The federal court of appeals ruled it Alabama prosecutor He pointed out that during his trial, black men violated the constitutional rights of death sentenced in 1990, and that blacks were rejected by ju-degree judges.

Michael Sockwell, 62, is eligible for a retrial after he was awarded Monday by a three-person judge panel in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. He was convicted in 1988 of murdering former Montgomery County Sheriff Isaiah Harris at the age of 26.

In a 2-1 opinion, the panel ruled that Alabama prosecutors violated Sockwell’s 14th Amendment rights by “repeatedly and intentionally” rejecting potential black ju umpires who had been believed to be more sympathetic since sharing the same race.

Prosecutors alleged that Harris’ wife had hired Sockwell to kill Harris.

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There were no witnesses in the shooting, so Sockwell initially told authorities in a videotape confession that he had killed Harris. During his trial, Sockwell testified that officers beat him and threatened to kill him before his confession, and that they had taken him out of food and water.

Sockwell later testified that a man who had an affair with Harris’ wife killed him. Former Sheriff. Sockwell also denied receiving money to kill Harris.

Sockwell’s lawyers say he has a low IQ that disqualifies him from the death penalty.

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The ju judge voted 7-5 to put Sockwell in prison and sentenced him to prison, but the judge rejected the decision and sentenced him to death. In Alabama, judges are no longer able to invalidate ju judges in capital cases.

Sockwell’s lawyer This decision was appealed.the prosecutor claimed that he unconstitutionally used race as a basis for the choice of ju umpires and rejected 80% of potential black ju umpires eligible for his trial, compared to only 20% of white ju umpires who were rejected. The appeal pointed to a memo from a prosecutor who refused a ju judge who said she was “a black man about 23 years old and would be very close to the same race, gender and age.”

President Donald Trump’s appointee, Judge Robert J. Luck, disagreed, arguing that the prosecutor also pointed out the race of potential white ju judges.

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The opinion, written by former President Bill Clinton appointee, Judge Charles Wilson, cited four other cases in the year leading up to the Sockwell case. There, state prosecutors illegally rejected black ju umpires based solely on race, and presented a “pattern” of choosing ju umpires with “discriminatory intent.”

Lucky pushed back allegations that prosecutors had a pattern of discrimination, saying at Sockwell’s trial 17% of ju judges are black from the ju judge pool.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.