Eighth Circuit Accepts Amicus Brief from LGBTQ Organizations on Antigay Jury Bias in Death Row Case But Denies South Dakota Death Row Prisoner Certificate of Appealability
ST. LOUIS - Sptember 7, 2018 - Today, a divided three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to hear the appeal of Charles Rhines, a gay man on death row in South Dakota, who argued that he should be allowed to present new evidence showing that antigay bias may have motivated the jury to sentence him to death.
Six civil rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, Lambda Legal, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and National LGBT Bar Association, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in August following the discovery of comments from jurors suggesting that sentencing Mr. Rhines to life in prison with other men would be "sending him where he wants to go."
The brief provided information about the long and painful history of discrimination against lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in the United States and asked the court to issues a certificate of appealability to Mr. Rhines to allow him to present evidence of juror bias.
Ria Tabacco Mar, senior staff attorney for the ACLU LGBT & HIV Project, had the following comment:
"Our judicial system has safeguards to prevent bias based on sexual orientation. Those safeguards failed for Mr. Rhines. We appreciate that Judge Kelly voted to consider Mr. Rhines's petition for the opportunity to show whether his death sentence was the result of anti-gay bias. "
Ethan Rice, Lambda Legal Fair Courts Project attorney, had the following comment:
"Mr. Rhines's case represents one of the most extreme forms anti-LGBT bias can take. Evidence suggests that he has been on death row for the past 25 years because he is a gay man. We are deeply disappointed that the court has chosen not to allow for review of this case when it is clear that Mr. Rhines may have been denied the constitutional right to a fair trial because the jury deliberations included bias."
More information on the case and the amicus brief is available here:
https://www.lambdalegal.org/in-court/cases/rhines-v-young
The amicus brief filed by the six organizations on August 2, 2018 can be found here: https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/rhines-v-young-amicus-brief
https://www.lambdalegal.org/in-court/legal-docs/rhines_sd_20180802_brief-of-amici-curiae
