Supreme Court set for case on racial bias in jury selection
Family Law
Curtis Flowers has been jailed in Mississippi for 22 years, even as prosecutors couldn't get a murder conviction against him to stick through five trials.
Three convictions were tossed out, and two other juries couldn't reach unanimous verdicts.
This week, the Supreme Court will consider whether his conviction and death sentence in a sixth trial should stand or be overturned for a familiar reason: because prosecutors improperly kept African-Americans off the jury.
The justices on Wednesday will examine whether District Attorney Doug Evans' history of excluding black jurors should figure in determining if Evans again crossed a line when he struck five African-Americans from the jury that most recently convicted Flowers of killing four people.
In overturning Flowers' third conviction, the Mississippi Supreme Court called Evans' exclusion of 15 black prospective jurors "as strong a prima facie case of racial discrimination as we have seen" in challenges to jury composition. This time around, though, the state's high court has twice rejected Flowers' claims, even after being ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court to take another look.
Related listings
-
Court case to tackle jails' medication-assisted treatment
Family Law 02/10/2019The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine started making its case in federal court on Monday against the ban on medication-assisted treatment in county jail amid the opioid crisis.Democratic Gov. Janet Mills recently lifted the Maine Department of ...
-
NC appeals court restores man's lawsuit against wife's lover
Family Law 09/08/2017A jilted husband's lawsuit against a doctor accused of stealing his wife's love can proceed after a North Carolina appeals court ruled Tuesday that the husband can continue suing the spouse's lover, seeking damages.The state Court of Appeals decision...
-
India's top court: Instant divorce among Muslims unlawful
Family Law 08/23/2017India's Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down the Muslim practice that allows men to instantly divorce their wives as unconstitutional.The bench, comprising five senior judges of different faiths, deliberated for three months before issuing its order ...
How do you qualify for workers compensation in Illinois?
The Workers’ Compensation Statute protects every employee in the State of Illinois.
A victim of a work-related injury or illness is eligible for many forms of compensation including reasonable medical care required to cure or relieve the impact of the injury, lost time from work, and any temporary or permanent disability.
Illinois Workers’ compensation is a system of benefits that:
– Pays for the medical treatment and medical bills incurred by work-related injuries and illnesses.
– Pays for the lost time from work
– Pays for any temporary or permanent disabilities
– Covers nearly every employee in Illinois
– and begins the very first day that you start working for your employer.
Employers in Illinois are required to purchase workers’ compensation insurance for their employees and the insurance companies fund the payment of worker’s compensation benefits for employees’ claims. In the event of a dispute, the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission (IWCC, or the Commission) enforces the state’s worker’s compensation laws and protects worker rights.