Courtroom declines to block execution of Texas person who argued that jurors engaged in anti-Hispanic bias

Cash Circumstance

The Supreme Court docket on Wednesday declined to block the execution of a Texas man who contended that jurors relied on racist stereotypes and anti-Hispanic prejudices in sentencing him to demise.

In a temporary, unsigned get, the justices turned down a request from Wesley Ruiz, who was convicted and sentenced to demise for the lethal 2007 taking pictures of Mark Nix, a Dallas police officer. There have been no general public dissents from Wednesday’s purchase.

Ruiz was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday evening.

Ruiz’s original endeavours to overturn his death sentence ended up unsuccessful. But Ruiz returned to court docket past thirty day period with signed affidavits from two jurors. One particular juror, the foreman at his demo, explained Ruiz as “like an animal,” “a mad pet dog,” and “a thug & punk.” A different juror attributed an boost in crime to the developing range of Hispanic citizens in her have neighborhood, and she disclosed that her sister experienced been violently assaulted by a guy whom she thought to be Hispanic. The jurors relied on these stereotypes, Ruiz argued, to conclude that Ruiz was probable to be violent in jail and thus must be sentenced to loss of life.

Following he failed to obtain relief in the two the point out courts and a federal district court, Ruiz sought unexpected emergency aid at the Supreme Court docket on Tuesday. He asked the justices to put his execution on hold and make your mind up no matter if the court’s 2017 choice in Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado, carving out an exception for proof that a juror was racially biased to a point out rule that normally bars jurors from testifying about statements that may possibly contact the verdict into problem, applies to sentencing proceedings in death-penalty conditions.

Attorneys for Texas urged the justices to permit the execution to go ahead as scheduled, dismissing Ruiz’s attractiveness as too tiny, too late. “Corporal Nix’s family members,” the point out concluded, “has waited for justice for sixteen yrs.”

This write-up was originally posted at Howe on the Court docket.