Divided Supreme Court Overturns State Death Row Conviction

At the heart of the case is a dispute over jury selection procedures and the Supreme Court’s longstanding precedent in Batson v. Kentucky, the 1986 ruling that prohibits prosecutors from using peremptory strikes to remove potential jurors solely because of their race.

The controversy stems from a Mississippi murder case dating back more than two decades. In 2004, Pitchford, then 18 years old, and Eric Bullins, then 16, carried out a robbery at a grocery store in Grenada, Miss.

During the crime, prosecutors said Bullins fired the shots that killed the store’s white owner, Reuben Britt.