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WILLIAMS V. PENNSYLVANIA, No. 15-5040

Cert. granted Oct. 1, 2015

Argument: Feb. 29, 2016

The Court agreed to hearWilliams v. Pennsylvania, a case challenging former PennsylvaniaSupreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille's participation in an appeal of a case that had been

tried in Philadelphia while Castille was the city's district attorney. Terrance Williams (pictured) was

convicted and sentenced to death in Philadelphia in 1984 for the murder of a man prosecutors had

described to the jury as "a kind man [who had] offered [Williams] a ride home." Williams was 18 at

the time of the murder. His death sentence wasreverseddays before his scheduled execution in

2012 because prosecutors under Castille's tenure had withheld information that the victim, a church

deacon, had sexually abused teenagers he had met through his church and that the trial prosecutor

knew that the victim had sexually abused Williams. In 2014, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court

reinstated Williams' death sentence. Williams' lawyers asked Castille to recuse himself from the

case, saying he had "personally approved the decision to pursue capital punishment" againstWilliams, continued to head the office when it defended the death verdict on appeal, and, in his

electoral campaign for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, had touted "the number of defendants he

had 'sent' to death row, including [Williams]." Castille denied the motion for recusal and authored a

concurring opinion that criticized Williams' lawyers and the judge who had ruled in Williams' favor.

The U.S. Supreme Court will take up the question of whether Castille's failure to recuse himself

violated Williams' rights, and whether it matters that Castille did not cast the deciding vote. Marc

Bookman, director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, said Castille's participation

created a conflict of interest: "It is his former office that is being accused of hiding evidence. He has a

stake in protecting the office that he led at the time that all this happened." Governor Tom Wolf

granted Williams a reprieve of his death sentence and announced amoratorium on executionsin

Pennsylvania on February 13.

(M. Sherman, "Justices to Review Bias Claim Against Top Pennsylvania Judge," Associated Press,

October 1, 2015; J. Roebuck, "U.S. Supreme Court agrees to scrutinize Castille's role in death-row

inmate's case," Philadelphia Inquirer, October 1, 2015;Williams v. Pennsylvania,Petition for Writ of

Certiorari, June 12, 2015.)

FOSTER v. CHATMAN, No. 14-8349

Cert. granted May 26, 2015 as Foster v. HumphreyArgument: Nov. 2, 2015

The Court granted cert. in the case of Timothy Foster, an African-American defendant who was

sentenced to death by an all-white jury after Georgia prosecutors had struck every black prospective

juror in his case. The Court will determine whether the prosecutions actions violatedBatson v.

Kentucky, which banned the practice of dismissing potential jurors on the basis of race. Foster

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/philadelphia-judge-cites-withheld-evidence-granting-new-sentencing-trial-terrance-williamshttp://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/philadelphia-judge-cites-withheld-evidence-granting-new-sentencing-trial-terrance-williamshttp://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/6054http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/10/01/us/politics/ap-us-supreme-court-judicial-bias.html?smid=fb-share&_r=1http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20151002_U_S__Supreme_Court_to_hear_appeal_of_Phila__death_row_inmate.html?c=rhttp://www.philly.com/philly/news/20151002_U_S__Supreme_Court_to_hear_appeal_of_Phila__death_row_inmate.html?c=rhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1LFfr8Iqz_7YllDdExmMVlveDQ/viewhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1LFfr8Iqz_7YllDdExmMVlveDQ/viewhttp://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/6054http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/10/01/us/politics/ap-us-supreme-court-judicial-bias.html?smid=fb-share&_r=1http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20151002_U_S__Supreme_Court_to_hear_appeal_of_Phila__death_row_inmate.html?c=rhttp://www.philly.com/philly/news/20151002_U_S__Supreme_Court_to_hear_appeal_of_Phila__death_row_inmate.html?c=rhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1LFfr8Iqz_7YllDdExmMVlveDQ/viewhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1LFfr8Iqz_7YllDdExmMVlveDQ/viewhttp://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/philadelphia-judge-cites-withheld-evidence-granting-new-sentencing-trial-terrance-williams

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challenged the prosecutions jury strikes as racially discriminatory at the time of jury selection, but

the trial court permitted the strikes. Nineteen years after the trial, his lawyers obtained the

prosecutors' notes from jury selection, which contained information that contradicted the race-

neutral explanations for the strikes that the prosecution had offered at trial.

The notes reflect that the prosecution marked the name of each black prospective juror in green

highlighter on four different copies of the jury list; circled the word BLACK next to the Race

question on the juror questionnaires of five black prospective jurors; identified three black

prospective jurors as B#1, B#2, and B#3; and ranked the black prospective jurors against each

other in case it comes down to having to pick one of the black jurors. Prosecutors said they struck

each of the black jurors for race-neutral reasons and did not use the highlighted list in their final

decision. The Georgia Supreme Court upheld Foster's conviction. Foster's case will be heard by the

U.S. Supreme Court after the new term begins in October.

(S. Hananel, "Supreme Court will hear appeal from Georgia death row inmate over exclusion of blackjurors," Associated Press, May 26, 2015; see the prosecutors'juror listwith black jurors

highlighted.) See alsoScotusblog's treatment of the case.

http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2015/05/26/high-court-to-consider-appeal-over-exclusion-of-black-jurorshttp://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2015/05/26/high-court-to-consider-appeal-over-exclusion-of-black-jurorshttp://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2015/05/26/high-court-to-consider-appeal-over-exclusion-of-black-jurorshttp://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/images/FostervHumphreyJuryNotes.pnghttp://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/foster-v-humphrey/http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/foster-v-humphrey/http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2015/05/26/high-court-to-consider-appeal-over-exclusion-of-black-jurorshttp://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2015/05/26/high-court-to-consider-appeal-over-exclusion-of-black-jurorshttp://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/images/FostervHumphreyJuryNotes.pnghttp://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/foster-v-humphrey/