The Kentucky Supreme Court will decide whether a black Louisville judge abused his power after he reportedly stopped the drug trial of a black man because the jury was all-white.
According to the Courier-Journal, Jefferson Circuit Judge Olu Stevens dismissed the jury members despite concerns from both the defense and the prosecutor.
This isn’t the first time the judge has asked an all-white jury out of his courtroom. On Nov. 18, at the request of a defense attorney concerned that his client, who was on trial for theft, would not receive a fair judgment, Judge Stevens dismissed an all-white 13-member jury.
“There is not a single African-American on this jury and [the defendant] is an African-American man,” Stevens said to a jury on a courtroom recording. “I cannot in good conscious go forward with this jury.”
The newspaper notes that a new jury was called in the next day, four of whose members were black.
Source: The Root | STEPHEN A. CROCKETT JR.
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