Partner David Ogden authored a March 14, 2019 commentary, published in the National Law Journal, on why the US Supreme Court should uphold the principle of race-neutral jury selection when it decides Flowers v. Mississippi, a decision that is expected by the end of the Court’s current term in June.

Mr. Ogden explained in his essay how a Mississippi prosecutor who tried Curtis Flowers—an African American—six times for murder systematically struck black citizens from jury pools in violation of the Court’s 1986 Batson v. Kentucky decision. The Supreme Court of Mississippi upheld the prosecutor’s actions. 

Besides arguing that the constitutional right to a fair trial is subverted by racial discrimination in jury selection, Mr. Ogden asserted that public safety ultimately erodes when such prosecutorial behavior is allowed, causing weaker public support for law enforcement.   

“Flowers currently sits on Mississippi’s death row despite the evidence that the jury who sent him there was chosen in violation of our most basic constitutional principles,” Mr. Ogden wrote. “The US Supreme Court must reaffirm those principles and ensure Flowers a new day in court before a fair and impartial jury of his peers.”

Mr. Ogden, a former US Deputy Attorney General, was among a bipartisan group of former senior Justice Department officials who submitted a US Supreme Court brief arguing for the justices to reverse the Mississippi high court’s decision.