Justice Thomas talks at court arguments, 1st time in 3 years

WASHINGTON (AP) – Justice Clarence Thomas is asking his first questions at Supreme Court arguments in more than three years.

Arguments were almost over Wednesday in a case about racial discrimination in the South when the court’s only African-American member and lone Southerner piped up.

The case involves a black Mississippi death row inmate who’s been tried six times for murder and a white prosecutor with a history of using jury strikes to exclude African-Americans.

Thomas wanted to know if the lawyer for inmate Curtis Flowers had made the same kind of decisions and if so, the race of struck jurors.

Lawyer Sheri Lynn Johnson said three white jurors were excused by Flowers’ trial attorney.

Thomas dissented when the court ruled for a Georgia inmate in a similar case in 2016.

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