(CNN) The US Supreme Court issued a stay of execution Tuesday night for a Georgia death row inmate who argued that a racist juror voted to put him to death because he is black.
Keith Tharpe, 59, was scheduled to die at 7 p.m. Tuesday night for the 1990 murder of his sister-in-law, Jacquelin Freeman. The justices granted the stay while they consider whether to take up his appeal. Conservative justices Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch dissented, saying they would not have granted the stay.
In post-conviction appeals, Tharpe did not deny killing Freeman. He sought a stay of execution based in part on racist comments from a juror who has since died.
In an interview seven years after Tharpe's sentencing, juror Barney Gattie used the n-word in reference to Tharpe and other black people and wondered "if black people even have souls." Tharpe's lawyers argued that a biased juror violated Tharpe's constitutional rights to a fair trial. Furthermore, his attorneys argued that Tharpe is ineligible for execution because he is intellectually disabled.
The Supreme Court of Georgia declined to hear Tharpe's claims on Tuesday, prompting his appeal to the US Supreme Court.
