Supreme Court Opinions Don't Have to Be the Final Word.

The article focuses on the legal and advocacy responses to the 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision in McCleskey v. Kemp, which rejected statistical evidence of racial disparities in Georgia's death penalty system. Despite the Court's ruling that required proof of intentional discrimination in individual cases, civil rights advocates, notably the Southern Center for Human Rights, intensified efforts to document and challenge structural racial inequalities in the criminal justice system through litigation and jury selection reforms. This strategy led to significant legal victories, such as the 1991 Horton v. Zant decision, which recognized prosecutorial misconduct in excluding Black jurors. Additionally, some states, including California with its Racial Justice Act, have enacted laws allowing defendants to challenge convictions based on racial bias, effectively repudiating McCleskey's narrow approach to equality. The article underscores that while the Supreme Court's rulings are influential, ongoing public and legislative actions continue to shape the pursuit of racial justice in the United States.