Justice Clarence Thomas on Wednesday broke his three-year silence at the Supreme Court by asking questions during arguments in a racial discrimination case involving a black man who has faced six trials for a quadruple homicide in the 1990s.
Justice Clarence Thomas on Wednesday broke his three-year silence at the Supreme Court by asking questions during arguments in a racial discrimination case involving a black man who has faced six trials for a quadruple homicide in the 1990s.
It was the first time that Thomas, the court’s only black justice, asked a question since 2016. Before that, Thomas, who was confirmed in 1991, had gone a decade without asking a question.
The case concerns Curtis Flowers, who was convicted of the killing in Mississippi only after five trials either deadlocked or resulted in overturned convictions, including for racial discrimination and prosecutorial misconduct.
The justices are reviewing whether district attorney Doug Evans, who prosecuted Flowers over more than a decade, violated the Constitution by excluding black jurors.
