Supreme Court rules Mississippi skipped required racial bias test in jury selection

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.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on May 28, 2026, that a Mississippi trial court violated the Constitution by skipping a required step in evaluating a Black defendant's challenge to racially discriminatory jury selection. Terry Pitchford, now 40 and on death row, was convicted at a 2006 trial where the prosecutor struck 4 of 5 Black potential jurors. The trial judge accepted the prosecutor's race-neutral explanations but never gave Pitchford's lawyers a chance to argue those explanations were pretextual — the required third step under Batson v. Kentucky (1986). The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled Pitchford had waived that argument. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and the three liberal justices, wrote that the Mississippi Supreme Court's waiver conclusion was unreasonable under AEDPA's standard for federal habeas review. The case now returns to the lower courts, clearing the way for Pitchford's conviction to be invalidated. He could be retried. Justice Gorsuch dissented, joined by Thomas, Alito, and Barrett, arguing Pitchford failed to meet AEDPA's demanding standard for overturning a state court decision.