Supreme Court again overturns death sentence
By Jeff Franks, Reuters | June 17, 2005
HOUSTON — The US Supreme Court’s rejection of another Texas death-penalty case this week has been called the latest rebuke to the state’s legal system.
It was the fourth time in two years that the nation’s highest court overturned a death sentence that Texas courts and the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans had let stand.
Texas leads the nation with 345 executions since 1982, including nine this year. The next closest state is Virginia, which has put to death 94 people in the same period. Critics say Texas overly favors capital punishment.
On Monday the US Supreme Court threw out the 1986 conviction of Thomas Miller-El, who is black, on grounds his trial was unfair because prosecutors in Dallas tried to keep blacks off the jury that sentenced him to die for killing a hotel clerk.
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