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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (BFMG) — One of Alabama’s longest-serving death row inmates could receive a new trial after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the state’s appeal in his decades-old capital murder case.
On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to review Alabama’s challenge to a June ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found prosecutors violated the constitutional rights of Michael Sockwell, 63, by intentionally striking Black jurors during jury selection. Sockwell has been on death row since 1990.
“We appreciate the Supreme Court’s decision. Michael has been denied his right to a fair trial for more than 35 years. We’ll continue to fight for his freedom,” attorney Michael Rayfield said in a statement.
Sockwell was convicted in 1990 of killing Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputy Isaiah Harris, who was shot in the face in 1988 while driving to work. Prosecutors said the killing was a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by Harris’ wife.
In a 2-1 opinion, the appeals court concluded that Alabama prosecutors violated Sockwell’s 14th Amendment rights by systematically excluding Black jurors believed to be more sympathetic to the defense. Judge Charles Wilson wrote that prosecutors “repeatedly and purposefully” struck qualified Black jurors, citing records that Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Ellen Brooks removed at least one Black male juror.
The Alabama Attorney General’s Office asked the Supreme Court to overturn that ruling, but justices declined to take the case.
A federal judge has ordered prosecutors to move toward retrying the case by March 18 or see Sockwell released from prison. A spokesperson for the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said the office intends to retry the case but declined further comment.
At Sockwell’s original trial, the jury voted 7-5 to recommend a sentence of life in prison. The judge overrode that recommendation and imposed the death penalty, a practice Alabama has since abolished in capital cases.
Harris’ wife was also convicted of capital murder in connection with the killing. She was originally sentenced to death, but her sentence was later reduced to life in prison.
