Bobby Batiste, a man on death row for the 2008 murder of his roommate at 21 Apartments, is contending that statements a bailiff made about the all-white jury that convicted him unfairly impacted his trial.
Batiste’s legal team began arguments Wednesday in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court that a bailiff’s comment to at least two jurors about the jury’s racial composition provided an extraneous influence that unfairly tilted the trial against him.
Batiste is black. The jury that convicted and sentenced him was all white.
Batiste, who was sentenced to death in October 2009 for the murder of Andreas Galanis, is appealing his case through a post-conviction relief hearing. Humphreys McGee and Carol Camp, with the Jackson-based Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, are representing Batiste. Camp said Batiste is seeking a new trial.
Denise Cranford, a former juror who testified during Wednesday’s hearing, said she was surprised to see the jury was entirely white. She said it consisted of three women and 11 men (two of the jury members were alternates).
“I was surprised,” she said. “This was an important trial. It should have been heard by a mixed jury.”
Cranford added that when she mentioned the issue to a bailiff, the bailiff said, “blacks do not agree with capital murder.”
Later in the hearing, Webster Rowan, another juror who served on the trial said he also was “a little bothered” by the jury’s racial composition.
“I talked to someone and they replied that because the death penalty was involved in this case, you had to be willing to assess the death penalty,” he said. “They said black people were not real comfortable doing that, was the explanation I got — that I can remember.”
Rowan said he couldn’t remember who exactly said it, but that “a couple of us were bothered by it.”
The Mississippi Supreme Court, which affirmed Batiste’s conviction on May 16, 2013, granted Batiste’s request to seek post-conviction relief on Jan. 21, 2016. The court found the bailiff’s comments may have violated Batiste’s right to a fair trial by an impartial jury.
“In the present case, affidavits from jurors who convicted Batiste and sentenced him to death support Batiste’s claim that bailiffs made improper comments which affected his right to a fair trial,” Justice James Kitchens wrote. “…. While such an explanation may have alleviated the concerns of the jurors regarding the absence of African Americans on Batiste’s jury, we cannot say that such remarks to jurors, if made, did not impact Batiste’s fundamental constitutional right to a fair trial by an impartial jury.”
Jason L. Davis and Ladonna Holland, with the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, are representing the state.
They called W.C. Johnson, a former bailiff who worked during Batiste’s trial, for testimony. Johnson said he had limited contact with the jury. He added that bailiffs were instructed not to have conversations with jurors.
“I can’t think of a scenario where I would have to have a conversation with a juror,” he said.
Johnson further testified that he was not aware of any bailiffs talking to the jury about the trial.
Mississippi 16th Circuit District Attorney Scott Colom, who is not involved in Batiste’s appeal, said African-American jurors, in his experience, tend to hold a less favorable view of the death penalty.
“Based on the experience I have with capital murder, African Americans, generally speaking, tend to be not supportive of the death penalty,” he said. “I haven’t done any research on it, but that’s just from my experience.”
Colom noted that someone has to be willing to asses the death penalty to serve on a jury when that punishment is in play. He said any number of things that go beyond race can disqualify someone from serving on a death penalty jury.
“A Catholic person could say that, because of their views, the death penalty shouldn’t be legal,” he said. “They wouldn’t be eligible to serve. On the other hand, if you have someone with the Old Testament eye for an eye view that thinks if you kill someone you should automatically get the death penalty, that would also make them ineligible. There are criteria that go both ways.”
Batiste’s hearing is now in recess until a later date. The court allowed time for Emily Britt, wife of the late Jim Britt — Oktibbeha County’s former Emergency Management director — to mourn the death of her husband. Britt passed away last week.
Both sides of the case will work to establish a date to continue the post-conviction relief hearing. They are aiming to do so by the end of the court term, which concludes in May.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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