A federal appeals court has ruled that Michael Sockwell, a Black man who has spent 25 years on Alabama’s death row for the 1988 murder of a deputy sheriff, is eligible for retrial due to violations of his constitutional rights, specifically the systemic exclusion of Black jurors during his original trial. His lawyers assert that this denial of a fair trial has persisted for 35 years, prompting ongoing efforts for his freedom.
Explain It To Me Like I’m 5: A man named Michael, who has been in prison for a very long time because of something he didn’t do, gets a chance to have a new trial because the people who decided his case didn’t let Black jurors help, which is not fair.
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