Execution stopped over claim blacks were kept off jury

The US Supreme Court has ordered a last-minute stay of execution for a black man who claimed that blacks were unfairly kept off his jury, thus prejudicing his trial. He had been due to die yesterday by lethal injection.

Justice Antonin Scalia halted the execution of Thomas Miller-El, 50, who was convicted of shooting a receptionist dead at a hotel near Dallas-Fort Worth airport in Texas in 1985. Another receptionist was seriously injured in the attack.

The court heard that during jury selection, the prosecution used peremptory challenges against 10 of 11 prospective black jurors. The final jury consisted of nine whites, one Latino, one Filipino and one black.

Miller-El's legal team argued that local prosecutors ran a discriminatory policy in trying to exclude black people and other minorities from juries. The Dallas authorities denied that there was any such policy.

The issue is complicated by the length of time since the case, and the lack of relevant records of other trials.

The execution will now be delayed while the possibility of racial manipulation of the jury is explored. If it is found that the jury was unfairly stacked against Miller-El, a retrial could be ordered. The case could also lead to the review of other trials where juries might have been racially biased.

Miller-El is waiting on death row to learn his fate. Texas executes more people than any other state. "I've learned to not really be optimistic until something occurs to cause me to be sincerely optimistic," he said yesterday.

The stay of execution came as the US faced international pressure over the execution of mentally handicapped prisoners.

The Supreme Court has been reviewing the case of a convicted murderer, Daryl Atkins, whose lawyers say he has a mental handicap. They say to execute him would be cruel and unusual punishment, and thus unconstitutional.

Currently, 38 states allow capital punishment, but 18 of these exempt mentally hadicapped people. There are no reliable figures to show how many such people are among the 3,700 prisoners on death rows in the US.