High court wanted skin color out of selection mix, once and for all

04:22 PM CST on Tuesday, January 24, 2006

James Kirkland Batson was an unlikely choice to revolutionize American legal history.

The Kentucky laborer was not the first black man to be convicted by an all-white jury, but his was the case that prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the time for change had arrived.

On April 30, 1986, the high court immortalized Mr. Batson’s name in a landmark decision that stripped prosecutors of their traditional ability to eliminate blacks from jury service without giving a race-neutral reason. The Batson hearing instantly became a part of the legal lexicon.

While its effect on ending bias in jury selection remains a subject of debate, there is no dispute that Mr. Batson’s case marked an important step in a long struggle against denying minorities a basic civil right.

Mr. Batson was 27 years old when he was convicted in 1983 of burglarizing a home in Jefferson County, Ky. Because he had a prior conviction, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

At his trial, prosecutors used their peremptory, or discretionary, challenges to remove all four eligible blacks from the jury panel. Mr. Batson’s defense attorney sought to have the jury dismissed as unrepresentative, but failed.

The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that it was a violation of a black defendant’s constitutional rights for prosecutors to use their peremptory challenges to exclude black jurors solely because of race.

Mr. Batson learned in prison that he had won a new trial. A few months later, his attorney negotiated a plea agreement that reduced his sentence to five years.

He was free for a decade before being found guilty of theft and receiving stolen property and sent back to prison for three, 10-year prison terms. He was released in January 2003 and remains on parole until 2026.

Reached by phone at his Louisville home, Mr. Batson said he realized that his case helped inmates across the country, and it made him a celebrity in prison. But, he played down the personal impact of the ruling.

“I’m a unique kind of guy,” he said, “and at that time, it didn’t put no money in my pocket, so it wasn’t no real big deal.”

Mr. Batson said he had abandoned his criminal ways, which he blamed on youthful arrogance and peer pressure. He said he was working in construction, developing an invention and trying to become a published author.

“It’s a help book, where I’m trying to help people turn in the other direction,” he said.