27 February 2010 :

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision that gave a new trial to Anthony Cardell Haynes. Haynes, 31, black, was convicted on Sept. 17, 1999 for killing off-duty police Sgt. Kent Kincaid. Kincaid, 40, on May 23, 1998. Haynes was 19 at the time. The high court told the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its March 2009 decision that Haynes should get a new trial or be released from death row. In his appeal, lawyers for Haynes contended that State District Court Judge Jim Wallace improperly allowed Harris County prosecutors to exclude a juror because she was black. The appellate court said that Haynes deserved a new trial because of the possibility that black jurors were improperly dismissed from his jury panel during his 1999 trial in Harris County. But the high court said the 5th Circuit last year misinterpreted Supreme Court rulings in its decision ordering a new trial.