How NC prosecutors 'skirted the law' to ensure 'all-white jury' for Black Death row prisoner

09 February 2023

Nearly 27 years after Russell William Tucker, a Black man, was convicted of murder in 1996, his attorneys are requesting a new trial from the North Carolina Supreme Court arguing that Tucker's prosecutors "skirted the law to make sure an all-white jury sat in judgment of him," The Charlotte Observer reports.

Victoria Bridges with The Charlotte Observer reports Tucker’s argument claims the prosecutors referenced a “cheat sheet” called “Top Gun Il”, which offered instruction on “how to get around a U.S. Supreme Court ruling forbidding the rejection of jurors based on race.”

A judge previously rejected Tucker’s argument “saying he couldn’t consider the jury selection argument because no new evidence has been presented,” while Senior Deputy Attorney General Danielle Elder echoed the judge’s statement arguing that “the cheat sheet isn’t new evidence.”

However, the defense attorneys assert “they didn’t discover the cheat sheet until 2015 after it was provided as evidence” in a separate trial.

Elder remains unconvinced of the evidence despite the attorneys' argument.

According to Bridges, Tucker's claim says, “Prosecutors were encouraged to paint Black jurors as exhibiting ‘resistance to authority,’ an ‘air of defiance,’ ‘lack of eye contact,’ and ‘anti-prosecution tendencies,'” — which describes "the Top Gun II training held by the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys."

Gretchen M. Engel, executive director of The Center for Death Penalty Litigation, which is representing Tucker said, “The exclusion of Black people from juries is a long-standing problem in North Carolina stretching back to the days of Jim Crow."

She added, “But rarely is the evidence so clear as in Mr. Tucker’s case.”

The center told Bridges nearly "half of the 137 people on death row" in North Carolina "were convicted with juries that were all white or had one person of color."

Bridges reports other advocates assert the state Supreme Court "has an opportunity with Tucker’s case to correct one injustice," as well as identify "what claims it will accept as evidence that prosecutors unfairly excluded jurors because they are Black."

Regarding a 1996 U.S. Supreme Court decision "that prevents prosecutors from excluding jurors on the basis of race," attorney with Emancipate NC, Ian Mance, considers North Carolina "behind" when it comes to applying the decision to its rulings.

Bridges writes:

Until last year, no North Carolina convictions had been overturned in response to the decision. The situation allowed prosecutors to strike prospective Black and Hispanic jurors with impunity, according to center.

The Charlotte Observer's full report is available at this link.

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