Kavanaugh, Roberts Join Supreme Court Liberal Justices in Death Row Ruling

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a Black Mississippideath row inmate can pursue renewed challenges to his conviction, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joining the court's liberal wing in a 5-4 decision.

The ruling highlights differences on the conservative-majority court over how aggressively to police claims of racial bias in jury selection and reinforces precedent barring discrimination against Black jurors. It reopens a decades-long legal battle for Terry Pitchford and sends his case back to lower courts, where his conviction and death sentence could again be reconsidered.

At issue was whether prosecutors improperly removed Black prospective jurors during Pitchford's 2006 capital murder trial, in which he was sentenced to death for his role in the robbery and killing of grocery store owner Reuben Britt in northern Mississippi. Prosecutors struck four of the five eligible Black jurors, leaving a panel with just one Black member, prompting objections from defense attorneys who argued the moves were racially motivated.

The case turned on the court's 1986 decision in Batson v. Kentucky, which prohibits excluding jurors on the basis of race and requires courts to scrutinize prosecutors' explanations for such strikes. Pitchford's lawyers contended they were not given a meaningful opportunity to argue that those explanations were pretextual, a conclusion a federal district judge reached in 2023 when overturning his conviction.

That ruling was later reversed by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sided with the Mississippi Supreme Court in finding that Pitchford's attorneys failed to properly preserve their objections during trial. The Supreme Court's decision Thursday effectively rejects that reasoning, clearing the way for Pitchford's claims to be reconsidered.

The case closely mirrors Flowers v. Mississippi, a 2019 ruling in which the justices threw out another conviction involving the same prosecutor, Doug Evans, for what Justice Kavanaugh described as a "relentless, determined effort to rid the jury of Black individuals." Evans also prosecuted Pitchford, and the same trial judge, Joseph Loper, presided over proceedings in both cases.

Pitchford, now 40, was 18 when he participated in the 2004 robbery that led to Britt's death. Although his accomplice fired the fatal shots, he was ineligible for the death penalty because he was under 18, leaving Pitchford to face capital charges. A jury convicted him and sentenced him to death in 2006, setting off years of appeals over whether racial bias tainted the jury that condemned him.

This is a breaking news article. Updates to follow.

This article includes reporting by the Associated Press.

2026 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.