The US Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked the death sentence against an African American man who challenged it as biased, after a psychologist testified he was more dangerous because of his race.
Duane Buck, 53, was sentenced to die after a defense psychologist’s testimony during the penalty phase of his 1997 murder trial that he was more likely to commit a violent crime because he was black.
By six votes to two, the US high court found that Buck had received incompetent legal counsel, and ordered the case sent back to a lower court for re-sentencing.
“Our law punishes people for what they do, not who they are,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the court opinion.
“Dispensing punishment on the basis of an immutable characteristic flatly contravenes this guiding principle,” Roberts wrote.
Under Texas law, a person can only be condemned to die if the prosecutor can prove he or she represents a future danger to society.
Christina Swarns — the attorney arguing Buck’s case before the top US court and who also represents the NAACP Legal Defense Fund — argued last October that the testimony of psychologist Walter Quijano “put the thumb heavily on the death scale” for her client.
Buck’s guilt in the Supreme Court case was not at issue: he was convicted of the brutal 1995 shooting deaths of his former lover and the man who was with her.
Swarns hailed the ruling in a statement on Thursday.
“Today’s decision sends a powerful message that no court can turn a blind eye to racial bias in the administration of criminal justice,” she said.
“Given the persistence of racialized fears, stereotypes, and discrimination, this decision is as important to the country as it is to Duane Buck.”
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