Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor thrashed her colleagues on Tuesday for refusing to hear a death penalty case despite "extraordinary misconduct" from a juror, according to a new report.
Sotomayor issued a blistering dissent on Tuesday after the court refused to rehear the death sentence case against Stacey Humphreys, a man from Georgia who alleged that the actions of a biased jury member led to his conviction, according to a report from Newsweek. The Supreme Court refused to grant certiorari to Humphreys, which Sotomayor found unacceptable.
Liberal-leaning justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined Sotomayor's dissent.
“Tragically, the Court denies review instead, allowing a death sentence tainted by a single juror’s extraordinary misconduct to stand,” Sotomayor wrote.
Humphreys was accused of murdering two women inside a new home in Georgia after forcing them to undress and robbing them, according to the report. One of the jurors was a victim of attempted rape and robbery. The report says that the juror allegedly misled other jurors to think Humphreys would be eligible for parole if they did not convict him unanimously.
The juror also said they would “stay here till forever if it takes it for him to get death," according to the report.
Sotomayor described the juror's behavior in her dissent as bullying.