WASHINGTON, April 21 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court Monday agreed to hear the case of Delma Banks Jr., whose Texas execution was blocked by the justices in March only minutes before it was to be carried out.
At the time, Banks pointed out that he was a black defendant, his victim was white and his jury was all white.
But Monday, the Supreme Court limited his case to his claims that the prosecution suppressed evidence that prejudiced the jury against him in the penalty phase of his trial, that a federal appeals court misinterpreted that suppression and that the appeals court mistakenly refused to review the constitutional basis of his suppression claim.
The Supreme Court specifically refused to review whether Banks's claim of jury discrimination was incorrectly rejected by the appeals court.
Banks had no prior criminal record but was convicted of killing 16-year-old Wayne Whitehead in Bowie County and then driving Whitehead's car to Dallas. The car was never found.
Whitehead and Banks worked together.
Key evidence against Banks was the testimony of a man who said he provided the murder weapon and heard the suspect confess to the killing but defense lawyers argue that testimony was later recanted.
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(No. 02-8286, Banks vs. Dir. Cockrell.)
