News of the murder traveled like a rifle shot across Floyd County in northwest Georgia. The year was 1986. The defendant, an 18-year-old African American, was facing a possible death sentence. Before the high-profile trial even began, defense lawyers filed a request with the judge to prevent prosecutors from using a pretrial tactic to exclude African Americans from serving on the jury. Of the 41 citizens considered for the jury, four were black. Yet when prosecutors assembled a five-name list of prospective jurors they most definitely wanted to exclude from the jury, all four African Americans were on it. Recommended: How much do you know about the US Constitution? A quiz. Now, lawyers for...
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