Death Penalty News

10:31 p.m.: The U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution tonight to condemned killer Keith Tharpe, three and a half hours after he was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection. In a 6-3 decision, the court’s justices were apparently concerned about claims that one of Tharpe’s jurors was racist and sentenced Tharpe to death because he was African-American. Three justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch — dissented. The high court will now decide whether to hear Tharpe’s appeal, and, if it doesn’t, the court said the stay of execution shall terminate automatically. But that will not happen tonight. Tharpe’s lawyers were overjoyed with the decision. “We’re gratified the court understands this case merits thoughtful consideration outside the press of an execution warrant,” said Brian Kammer, one of Tharpe’s attorneys. “We are extremely thankful that the court has seen fit to consider Mr. Tharpe's claim of juror racial bias in regula...

Only a unanimous jury can convict and impose a death sentence in Georgia, and the law has long recognized that misconduct by a single juror requires reversal. In 1991, a jury in Jones County, Georgia, sentenced Keith Tharpe, a Black man, to death for the murder of his sister-in-law. Seven years later, Tharpe’s defense counsel met with a white juror on Tharpe’s trial as part of their routine investigation of the case. The juror explained to the lawyers why he voted for his client’s death, and then reviewed, edited, and signed a sworn statement, which set out his views of race and Tharpe: I have observed there are two types of Black people: 1. Black folks and 2. Niggers. For example, some of them who hang around our little store act up and carry on. I tell them, “nigger, you better straighten up or get out of here fast.” I felt Tharpe who wasn’t in the “good” black folks category in my book, should get the electric chair for what he did. . . . After studying the Bible, I have wond...

Keith Tharpe was convicted and sent to death thanks in part to a racist juror. If the Supreme Court is serious about reducing the impact of racial prejudice in capital cases - and 2 recent decisions suggest it is - the justices will halt the pending execution of a Georgia man and grant him a new trial. At stake in the case of Keith Tharpe is not the question of his guilt or innocence. At stake is the proposition that no black person should be condemned to death by a white juror who proudly boasts after sentencing that he voted to impose capital punishment because the defendant was a "nigger." The facts of the case are simple. His prosecutor, a district attorney named Joseph Briley, came to the case with a reputation for using peremptory strikes during jury selection in a racially discriminatory fashion. The federal courts had caught him in prior cases trying illegally to exclude blacks from juries sitting in judgment of black defendants. In Tharpe's case, Brile...

Keith Tharpe faces the death penalty for killing his sister-in-law and kidnapping and raping his estranged wife. His lawyers have appealed the sentence because 1 of the jurors who voted for his execution may have been racially biased. Keith Tharpe was convicted in 1991 of killing his sister-in-law and kidnapping and raping his estranged wife on Setp. 25, 1990. The wife left him and moved in with her parents. He intercepted her and her sister, Jacqueline Freeman, while they were on their way to work. He killed her sister, dragged her in a ditch and raped her and drove her to Macon to force her to withdraw money from her credit union account. With only 100 days to prepare the case, Tharpe's defense team lost the trial. The jury unanimously sentenced him to death. 8 years later, claims of a racially bias juror surfaced. The man in question, Barney Gattie, admitted he used racial epithets and racially biased language when describing Tharpe. Now-deceased, Gattie's sig...

ATLANTA - Georgia has scheduled its second execution of the year, with a man convicted of killing his sister-in-law 27 years ago set to die later this month. Keith Leroy Tharpe, 59, is slated to be put to death on Sept. 26 at the state prison in Jackson, Department of Corrections Commissioner Gregory C. Dozier said in a news release Wednesday. Tharpe was convicted in the September 1990 shooting death of Jaquelyn Freeman. Tharpe's lawyers had asked a federal judge to reopen his case, saying a juror's racial bias "impermissibly influenced the imposition of his death sentence." A judge Tuesday rejected the request. Tharpe's wife, Migrisus Tharpe, left him on Aug. 28, 1990, and went to live with her mother. He was ordered not to have any contact with his wife or her family after he was accused of threatening violence against them, according to a Georgia Supreme Court summary of the case. Despite that order, Tharpe called his wife on Sept. 24, 1990, ...