NACDL President on the Supreme Court’s Failure to Address Naked Racial Prejudice – Washington, DC (April 20, 2022)

Washington, DC (April 20, 2022) – NACDL President Martín Sabelli issued the following statement in response to the Supreme Court’s failure to hear the case of Kristopher Love v. Texas:

"On Monday, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case of Kristopher Love, a Black man convicted and sentenced to death in Texas by the vote of a juror who believes that ‘non-white races’ are statistically more violent than whites. Six of nine justices did not find that this expression of racial hatred sufficiently undermined the integrity of the verdict to merit their review. This human and social tragedy, and others like it, will continue to divide our nation until and unless we demand real diversity at every level in our state and federal courts. A diverse judiciary, with lived experience mirroring our communities, would and will appreciate the profound injustice of allowing a racially prejudiced juror to judge another. A house divided cannot stand and divided we are if our courts – despite the Bill of Rights, Equal Protection, and common decency – empower the naked racial prejudice of a juror whose authority derives from the court who administered the oath to him."