St. Louis–The State of Missouri is scheduled to execute Andre Cole on April 14 and Kimber Edwards on May 12 despite evidence that all black potential jurors were removed from each those capital juries by St Louis County prosecutors simply because they were black. The NAACP, ACLU, and dozens of other organizations and congregations in St Louis and around the state have joined in a call for Governor Nixon to convene a Board of Inquiry to halt the executions and investigate this issue.
In a letter delivered to Governor Nixon, numerous state legislators and organizations representing thousands of Missouri residents from across the state joined in the request to investigate the systemic exclusion of African-American jurors in death penalty cases from St. Louis County, particularly by all-white decision-makers.
The letter described the “postman gambit” – a creation of a St Louis prosecutor in the Herbert Smulls case in 1992 to removes African Americans from death penalty juries simply because they work at the post office. The “postman gambit” has been used since then to secure all-white juries, including in Mr. Edwards’ case.
There are currently 11 prisoners on Missouri’s death row who are from St. Louis County. Seven of those 11, or 64 percent, are African-American—even though African Americans comprise only 24 percent of St. Louis County’s population.
National attention focused on racial bias of law enforcement and other state actors in Missouri since the incidents in Ferguson should make the Governor more sensitive to these claims. Disturbingly, Governor Nixon has allowed other executions of similarly-situated condemned men to go forward — now is the time to halt executions and investigate these issues that have the whole world watching Missouri.
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Attribute to Denise Leiberman, Don’t Shoot coalition:
“St. Louis County is, of course, home to the City of Ferguson and to the deeply troubling events of recent months there. The Department of Justice’s strong rebuke of Ferguson’s law enforcement practices and their impact on African-American citizens should resonate across St. Louis County. Racial disparities in capital convictions from St. Louis County exceed even those condemned by the Department of Justice’s recent report on Ferguson. This must be investigated.”
Attribute to Mary Ratliff, President, NAACP:
“Missouri has been in the news a lot recently regarding its racially-biased law enforcement practices – the federal government even issued a report criticizing its disparate treatment of black residents. Excluding and targeting black people happens in capital cases in St Louis too – and regardless of one’s views about capital punishment, our justice system should not tolerate disparate or unequal treatment – particularly when a life is at stake.”
Attribute to Joe Luby, Counsel for Andre Cole:
“The problem is rampant –Missouri courts have found that St. Louis County prosecutors have stricken black jurors because of race in five more trials since those of Andre Cole and Kimber Edwards. Herbert Smulls was executed last year and his conviction and sentence of death was secured from an all-white St. Louis jury.”
Attribute to Jeffrey Mittman, Executive Director, ACLU of Missouri:
“Gaming the system to put someone to death is wrong. To blatantly exclude African Americans from a government function is egregious. Combining the two demands a Board of Inquiry.”