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SCOTUS overturns conviction for local death row inmate

FLOYD COUNTY, Ga. — A Georgia death row inmate will likely get a new trial after the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision stating prosecutors illegally kept African-American jurors off that jury 30 years ago.

An all-white Floyd County jury convicted Timothy Foster and sentenced him to death for the 1987 murder of 79-year old Queen Madge White. Police said she was sexually assaulted then strangled in her home. Twenty years later, Foster’s attorneys discovered the prosecution’s notes showing they did intentionally keep African-American prospective jurors off that jury.

The Supreme Court justices noted that the notes showed prosecutors highlighted the names of African-American potential jurors in bright green ink on their list and numbered them B#1, B#2, and B#3.  They also named some of the jurors they believed were kept off that jury, including longtime Rome resident Eddie Hood.

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Channel 2 Action News tracked down Hood, now 75, who said he remembers that 1987 jury selection very clearly and felt, even then, that he was being kept off that jury.

“I told my wife, I said, ‘They probably don’t have many of us on the jury,’” Hood said. “I had a little bit of an inclination that I possibly wasn’t going to be in there.”

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the 7-1 decision sending the case back to the Georgia Supreme Court, “…justifications for striking Hood fail to withstand scrutiny because no concerns were expressed with regard to similar white prospective jurors.”

In all likelihood, the Georgia Supreme Court will order a new trial for Foster.

The Floyd County DA’s Office had no comment since it’s a pending case but did say it was meeting with the victim’s family to explain the decision to them.