The Supreme Court have thrown out a murder conviction after they found that the prosecution made racist comments against witnesses and in his closing argument.
The court in Seattle overturned the conviction against Kevin L. Monday Jnr, who was found guilty and sentenced to 64 years in prison for the murder of Francisco Green in April 2006.
He was convicted in 2007 of first-degree murder and assault and appealed on the grounds he did not get a ‘fair and impartial trial’ as set out in the Bill of Rights.
In an 8-1 majority, the court found that James Konat, a veteran King County deputy prosecutor engaged in ‘prosecutorial misconduct’ in questioning witnesses during Monday’s trial and during his closing argument.
During the month-long trial, when Konat questioned the witnesses – most of whom were black – he asked them about a street code which meant that ‘black folk don’t talk about black folk’ and don’t ‘snitch’ to police.
He also pronounced the word police as ‘po-leese‘ when addressing the black witnesses which the justices found to be derogatory.
Monday, 25, appealed the conviction on a number of grounds, claiming that Konat, who is white, ‘made a blatant and inappropriate appeal to racial prejudice and undermined the credibility of African-American witnesses based on their race’, according to the Supreme Court.
Though the conviction was upheld in a court of appeal, in Thursday’s ruling at the Supreme Court, they found that Konat’s comments were enough grounds for the conviction to be overturned as they cast doubt on the credibility of many of the witnesses.
