Criminal defendants may not use race as a basis for excluding potential jurors from their trials, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
By a 7-2 vote in a Georgia case, the justices extended the scope of recent high court decisions that said race-based exclusions of potential jurors are unconstitutional.Justice Harry Blackmun, writing for the court, said purposeful racial discrimination by defendants in the peremptory, challenges of prospective jurors harms individuals and damages public confidence in the justice system.
And Blackmun said prohibiting defendants from excluding potential jurors based on race does not violate fair-trial rights.
"It is an affront to justice to argue that a fair trial includes the right to discriminate against a group of citizens based upon their race," he said.
Blackmun's opinion was joined by Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Byron White, John Paul Stevens, Anthony Kennedy and David Souter. Justice Clarence Thomas concurred in the decision but wrote a separate opinion.