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Problems in Legal Ethics Keyed to Schwartz, 14th Ed.
Miller-El v. Dretke
Citation:
545 U.S. 231, 125 S.Ct. 2317, 162 L.Ed.2d 196 (2005)Facts
Thomas Joe Miller-El was charged with capital murder for shooting two hotel employees during a robbery in Dallas, Texas in 1985, killing one and severely injuring the other. During jury selection, prosecutors used peremptory strikes against 10 of 11 qualified black venire members (91%), while striking only 13% of eligible non-black venire members. Miller-El presented evidence of disparate treatment and questioning of black and white venire members, prosecutors’ use of jury shuffling when black venire members were seated at the front of the panel, and historical evidence of systematic exclusion of blacks from juries by the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. The prosecution offered race-neutral reasons for its strikes, but Miller-El argued these reasons were pretextual, pointing to similarly situated white venire members who were not struck despite sharing characteristics cited as reasons for striking black venire members.
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