The End of the Innocence: Railroading Marcellus Williams to Death Row.

The prosecutors in Williams’ case, who have been involved in at least two other wrongful convictions in death penalty cases, padded the likelihood of conviction by aggressively excluding blacks from the jury. During jury selection, the prosecution used 6 of its 9 peremptory challenges to exclude black jurors. In one instance, the prosecutor claimed he struck a black potential juror because he “looked very similar” to Williams. In another instance, the prosecutor said he rejected a black man for the jury because he worked for the Post Office and alleged that postal workers tend to be “very liberal.” He later approved a white post office employee for the jury. The jury deliberated for less than two hours (including lunch) before sentencing Williams to death.

#US #DeathPenalty #Inhumanity #USPolitics #HumanRights
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/06/28/the-end-of-the-innocence-railroading-marcellus-williams-to-death-row/