A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that Keith Tharpe’s claims were barred on procedural grounds. The panel also said a 2017 opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court that allows courts to consider evidence of racial animus by jurors could not be applied retroactively to Tharpe’s case, which was tried 27 years ago.

Even so, one judge expressed great discomfort with the outcome. The juror’s “repugnant comments were rife with racial slurs (and) deeply seeded views regarding integration, interracial marriage and the like,” Judge Charles Wilson wrote separately.

Seven years after Tharpe’s trial, juror Barney Gattie signed a sworn statement, in which he said, “After studying the Bible, I have wondered if black people even have souls.”
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