U.S. Supreme Court rules for black Georgia death row inmate

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday effectively overturned a black man's 1987 conviction for murdering a white woman, rebuking Georgia prosecutors for unlawfully excluding black potential jurors in picking an all-white jury that condemned him to death.

The 7-1 ruling handed a major victory to Timothy Foster, who is 48 now and was 18 at the time of the 1986 killing of Queen Madge White, a 79-year-old retired schoolteacher, in Rome, Georgia. Prosecutors, however, still could seek a new trial.

Black convicts make up a disproportionately high percentage of death row inmates in the United States. Opponents of capital punishment assert that the American criminal justice system discriminates against black defendants.

During jury selection, all four black members of the pool of potential jurors were "struck" by prosecutors, meaning they were removed from consideration. Prosecutors gave reasons not related to race for their decisions to exclude them.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the ruling, said prosecution notes introduced into evidence that shed light on the jury selection "plainly belie the state's claim that it exercised its strikes in a 'color blind' manner. The sheer number of references to race in that file is arresting."