Supreme Court reverses a capital conviction in Pitchford v. Cain for skipping the Batson third step

The Supreme Court reversed 5-4 the capital conviction of Terry Pitchford, a Black man in Mississippi, because the trial court skipped the required third step of the Batson framework when evaluating the prosecutor's peremptory strikes. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the majority — his second consecutive ruling reversing a Mississippi capital conviction tied to prosecutor Doug Evans, who had struck 4 of 5 Black potential jurors. The ruling reinforced that courts must complete all three Batson steps and cannot rubber-stamp prosecutor explanations.