Georgia officials executed Kenneth Fults Tuesday after the US Supreme Court [official website] Tuesday denied [order, PDF] the application for stay [text, PDF] of execution. His attorney argued [petition, PDF] that the jury which sentenced Fults, an African American man, was tainted by the racial bias of at least one member, after Fults pleaded guilty to murdering his neighbor, Cathy Bounds, in 1996. Fults completed a series of appeals and filed for both state and federal habeas corpus review over his nearly 20-year incarceration [press release]. On April 8 his attorney filed an application for the stay of his execution with the US Supreme Court at least until the court decided Pena-Rodriguez v. State of Colorado [SCOTUSblog materials], a case before the court considering similar facts of racial slurs made by jurors. Fults was executed [press release] Tuesday night.

Earlier this month the Supreme Court on granted certiorari [order list, PDF] in a case regarding racial bias expressed in jury deliberation and whether the no-impeachment rules applied in this scenario violate an individual’s Sixth Amendment [text] right to an impartial jury. Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado [docket] has come before the Supreme Court because after the initial verdict against Miguel Angel Pena-Rodriguez, two jurors came forward and alleged that another juror had made racially-charged comments during deliberation, that suggested the verdict could have been based on racial bias [JURIST report].