Citing concerns about bias, SJC overturns murder conviction

By Globe Staff

Prosecutors didn't give an adequate race-neutral explanation when they removed the only black person in the jury pool in a 2005 Pittsfield murder case, the state's highest court ruled today, reversing the defendant's second-degree murder conviction in a racially-charged case.

Tyson J. Benoit, who is black, was convicted of killing Anthony Hopkins, who is white, on May 30, 2005. Benoit was 17, while Hopkins was 18.

During jury selection, the prosecution used a peremptory challenge to remove a woman who was the only black person left in the jury pool. Benoit's attorneys said the removal of the juror was invalid because the prosecutor hadn't given adequate reasons for it.

The majority of the court agreed, saying that "the prosecutor's stated reasons for his challenge, considered separately or together, do not satisfy the Commonwealth's burden" of offering a genuine reason for the challenge that had nothing to do with the juror's race.

The court, in an opinion written by Justice Margot Botsford, said, "the defendant has an unquestionable right to be tried before a jury that has been selected in a manner that is free from discrimination, and this right was not adequately protected in this case."

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Judith Cowin, along with two other justices, said she believed that the court should have stuck with the trial judge's finding that there were race-neutral reasons for the challenge.

"We choose instead to insinuate ourselves unnecessarily into the process, making credibility determinations on a written record years and miles removed from the trial," she said.

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