Andre Thomas: SCOTUS rejects alleged jury bias in trial of Black Texas death row inmate who ate his own eye
Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers. Discretion advised.
WASHINGTON, DC: The Supreme Court rejected to take up the case of a Black man named Andre Thomas who is on death row for killing his wife, who was White, and two children in 2014. Thomas’ lawyers had argued that the 39-year-old didn't get a fair trial because jurors who convicted him objected to his interracial marriage.
A 6-3 majority of the court rejected the request on Tuesday, October 11, 2022. The court did not give any reason for denying to review the case. However, the three justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote that Thomas’ conviction and death sentence “clearly violate the constitutional right to the effective assistance of counsel,” reports The Texas Tribune. Sotomayor said, "This case involves a heinous crime apparently committed by someone who suffered severe psychological trauma Whether Thomas’ psychological disturbances explain or in any way excuse his commission of murder, however, is beside the point. No jury deciding whether to recommend a death sentence should be tainted by potential racial biases that could infect its deliberations or decision, particularly where the case involved an interracial crime." Fox News states that the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals had earlier rejected appeals from Thomas' lawyers, who also argued that he was suffering from acute psychosis and that he should not be executed because he is mentally ill.
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Who is Andre Thomas?
According to CBS, Thomas was charged with capital murder in 2005 after he killed his wife Laura Christine Boren, 20, their son Andre Lee, 4, who was biracial, and his wife's 13-month-old daughter Leyha Marie Hughes on March 27, 2004. Thomas said God had told him to commit the killings.
He stabbed them and had their hearts ripped out, thinking he could "set them free from evil," according to court filings. He then stabbed himself in the chest. After he was charged, five days later in jail he took out one of his eyes. While on death row in 2009, he removed his other eye and told prison officials that he ate it, as per Fox News.
Thomas was convicted to death by an all-White jury, including three jurors who opposed interracial marriage on their jury questionnaires with one stating, "I think we should stay with our Blood Line." Thomas’ counsel at the time raised no objection about the three jurors. Sherrilyn Ifill, a lawyer for Thomas, argued in court papers in 2021, “Thomas’ case undermines principles this Court has repeatedly and forcefully protected: the right to an impartial jury, and the recognition that overt racial bias in the criminal justice system must be eradicated,” as quoted by CNN.
And now, Maurie Levin, Thomas' attorney, said after the rejection on October 11, "No one who hears the story of Mr Thomas’ life believes he is mentally competent. Guiding a blind, delusional man onto Texas' gurney would be an indelible image that would cast a permanent shadow over Texas' reputation."