Keith Tharpe is an African American inmate on Georgia\u2019s death row. Nearly thirty years ago, a jury found him guilty of capital murder and sentenced him to death. \u00a0Over seven years later, Tharpe\u2019s attorneys discovered that one of his jurors, who was white, harbored deeply racist views in connection with his vote for Tharpe\u2019s death. Since then, Tharpe has attempted to challenge the \u201cfamiliar and recurring evil\u201d \u00a0that tainted his death sentence: racial bias. However, his claim has never been evaluated due to procedural bars. Earlier this year, Tharpe made a final request for the Supreme Court to reverse the procedural rulings of the lower courts, but the Court denied certiorari.<\/p>\n
Death is a punishment that differs from all others not in degree, but in kind. Accordingly, the Constitution requires that capital juries consider defendants as \u201cindividual human beings\u201d rather than \u201cmembers of a faceless, undifferentiated mass.\u201d \u00a0Tharpe\u2019s juror contravened this principle. In a signed affidavit, he stated that \u201cthere are two types of black people,\u201d using a racial slur to categorize one, and calling the other \u201cgood black folks.” In his view, Tharpe did not belong in the \u201cgood black folks\u201d category and \u201cshould get the electric chair for what he did.\u201d In contrast to the Constitution\u2019s mandate that capital juries contemplate the \u201ccompassionate or mitigating factors stemming from the diverse frailties of humankind,\u201d Tharpe\u2019s juror explicitly wondered whether black people have souls<\/p>\n