HOLLINS v. OKLAHOMA
295 US 394 (1935)
Charged with rape, The defendant in this case was convicted on December 29, 1931 at a trial held in the basement
of the jail is Sapula, Oklahoma. Three days before the scheduled execution, the NAACP secured a stay and, later,
a reversal of his conviction by the Supreme Court of Oklahoma.
The U.S. Supreme Court- in a memorandum opinion-affirmed the principle that the convictions of a black by a jury
from which all blacks had been excluded was a denial of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution.
HALE v. COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY
303 US 613 (1938)
Charged with murder in McCracken County, Kentucky in 1936, Joe Hale moved to set aside the indictment on the
grounds that the jury commissioners had systematically excluded blacks from jury lists.
Hale established that one out of every six residents of the county was black, and that there were at least 70 blacks out
of a total of 6,700 persons qualified for jury between 1906 and 1936.
Hale's conviction and death sentence were upheld by the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, but both were struck
down by the U.S. Supreme Court on the grounds that he had been denied equal protection of the laws.
PATTON v. MISSISSIPPI
332 US 463 (1947)
This case involved Eddie Patton, a black man who was indicted, tried, and convicted of the murder of a white man
in Mississippi. At his trial and as part of his appeal, Patton alleged that all qualified blacks had been systematically
excluded from jury service in Lauderdale County (the place of the trial) solely because of race. The state maintained
that, since jury service was limited by status to qualified voters, and since few blacks were qualified to vote, such
a procedure was valid in the eyes of the law.
The U.S. Supreme Court, however, reversed Patton's conviction on the grounds that such a jury plan, resulting in
the almost automatic elimination of blacks from jury service, constituted an infringement of his rights under the
Fourteenth Amendment.
SHEPHERD v. FLORIDA
341 US 50 (1951)
The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the conviction of a state court involving black defendants solely on the grounds
that the method of selecting the grand jury discriminated against blacks.
TURNER v. FOUCHE
396 US 346 (1970)
The Supreme Court affirmed the right to bring an action in Federal Court to end discrimination in jury selection.