Duane Buck

Duane Edward Buck (1963-) is an African-American man convicted of shooting three people, killing two in 1995. He was scheduled to be executed on September 15, 2011, however, the Supreme Court of the United States granted a stay of the process.^[1][2]

In 1995 the then 32-year-old Buck shot and killed his former girlfriend and a man in her apartment, for which he was sentenced to death. At the trial a psychologist testified that black people were statistically more likely to commit violence, an assertion that has been the cornerstone of his death penalty appeal; that his sentence was racially biased. In 2000 Texas Attorney General John Cornyn recommended that six cases, including Buck's be reviewed for racially biased testimony. Buck's was not although the other five were (in all five cases the defendants were again sentenced to die) because the state argued that the racial reference was only a small part of the case.^[3]

References

1. ^ "Temporary stay granted for Texas death row inmate". CNN, 9/15/2011.
2. ^ Pilkington, Ed (2011-09-16). "Duane Buck Texas execution halted by supreme court". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/16/duane-buck-execution-stayed-supreme-court. Retrieved September 16, 2011. "Duane Buck, an inmate on Texas's death row for the past 16 years, has been spared the lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court stayed his execution on the grounds that the jury at his sentencing hearing was told he was a danger to the public because he is black." 
3. ^ Michael Graczyk. "Duane Buck Case: U.S. Supreme Court Stays Execution Of Texas Inmate". The Huffington Post, 9/15/11.