Gay Man’s Death Row Appeal Declined By Supreme Court

Charles Rhines is still on death row in the South Dakota state prison, as he has been for the past 26 years. It’s hard to know when the State will get around to executing him but on April 15 the U.S. Supreme Court greenlighted the process, ruling that homophobic remarks made by jurors who decided that he deserved the death penalty were not grounds to review their decision. One juror said that Rhines, was a homosexual who shouldn’t be able to spend his life with men in prison, another that if he’s gay “we’d be sending him where he wants to go if we voted to sentence him to life.” A third juror allegedly said the panel had “lots of discussion of homosexuality” and “a lot of disgust.” His appeal was based on a 2017 Supreme Court ruling that states must consider racist sentiments of jurors, and claimed it should apply to his case as well. The ruling, in Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado, said that when it is clear that jurors made statements that rely on racial stereotypes or hate to convict someone of a crime, then the Sixth Amendment guarantees that person the right to introduce those statement to show that he or she has not been fairly tried by an impartial jury.