Alliance for Justice Praises Supreme Court Decision in Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 6  – Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron released the following statement in response to today’s Supreme Court decision in Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado:    

“Alliance for Justice welcomes today’s 5-3 Supreme Court ruling in Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado.  It’s clear that explicitly racist statements made by a juror undermined Mr. Pena-Rodriguez’s constitutional right to a fair trial, and the Court is correct in ruling that federal rules of evidence should not have prevented those statements from coming to light. With this ruling, the Court has taken another important step to combat the pernicious influence of racism in our justice system, as it did with its ruling in Buck v. Davis last month.”