ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia death row inmate is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider his claim that his death sentence is unconstitutional because one of the jurors was motivated by racial prejudice.
Kenneth Fults is to be executed Tuesday for the 1996 killing of Cathy Bounds.
An investigator working for Fults' lawyers in 2005 interviewed Thomas Buffington about his experience as a juror in Fults' sentencing trial. Buffington, who has since died, said in a sworn statement that he knew he "would vote for the death penalty because that's what that (N-word) deserved."
State and federal courts have rejected this challenge, largely on procedural grounds. The U.S. Supreme Court in October declined to take it up on appeal.
Fults' lawyers on Friday asked the highest court directly to consider the matter.
