If nothing changes, nothing changes – and apparently A.G. Wilson is happy for racism & bigotry to remain the status quo in the courts of South Carolina. Wilson has appealed the U.S. District Court decision reached in March by Judge Richard Gergel finding that Mr. Bennett’s due process rights were violated by (1) the seating of a racist juror & (2) the solicitor’s repeated & “calculated effort to inject race” into the sentencing hearing.

In granting a new sentencing hearing Judge Gergel opined that, “a decision on death, the one judicial act that cannot be later corrected, must be made under circumstances not infected by distracting and inciting racial imagery that harken back to a dark day of our country’s past.”

Justice 360 is highly disappointed that A.G. Wilson has decided to defend such blatant racism in a capital proceeding in South Carolina.  Wilson’s decision is especially shocking given that the State specifically conceded before Judge Gergel that “there is no dispute that the [juror’s] statement is racist,” and admitted that they could not articulate a purpose, other than to invoke racialized imagery, for the Solicitor’s racist comments at trial.  This appeal is frivolous.  It will potentially add years of litigation, at the taxpayers’ expense, and will delay Mr. Bennett the fair sentencing trial to which he is entitled.