Whitus v. Georgia

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Whitus v. Georgia

Argued December 7, 1966
Decided January 23, 1967

Full case name:	Whitus, et al. v. Georgia

Citations:	385 U.S. 545; 87 S. Ct. 643; 17 L. Ed. 2d 599; 1967 U.S. LEXIS 2452

Prior history:	Cert. to the Supreme Court of Georgia

Holding

Convictions cannot stand if based on indictments or verdicts of juries on which racial discrimination has occurred.

Court membership

Chief Justice: Earl Warren
Associate Justices: Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, Tom C. Clark, John Marshall Harlan II, William J. Brennan, Jr., Potter Stewart, Byron White, Abe Fortas

Case opinions

Majority by: Clark
Joined by: unanimous

Whitus v. Georgia, 385 U.S. 545 (1967), found in favor of the plaintiff (Whitus), who had been convicted for murder, and as such reversed their convictions. This was due to the Georgia jury selection policies; in which it was alleged racial discrimination had occurred.

The plaintiffs argued that, as their county had a 45% population of african-Americans, it was discrimination and unfair to have been presented with all-white or nearly all-white juries each time. Thus, the Supreme Court - as well as overturning the convictions - ruled that Georgia renew it's jury selection policies. Previous law meant tax returns would be sorted, and "Negroes" would have a '(c)' placed next to their name. In the conviction of Whitus, the jury had been selected via old lists.