WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court will hear appeals from two African-American death-row inmates in Texas, including one who argued his sentence was based on his race.
The justices on Monday said they will review death sentences for inmates Bobby Moore and Duane Buck. Neither case poses a broad challenge to the death penalty.
Moore was sentenced to death more than 35 years ago and says he is ineligible to be executed because he is intellectually disabled.
A jury voted to sentence Buck to death after a defense expert testified that black people were more likely to commit violence. Buck’s lawyers have fought for years to win a new sentencing hearing.
Buck came close to being executed in 2011, before the justices stepped in with a last-minute reprieve.