Racist remark not enough to overturn conviction

Friday, Nov. 8, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a Las Vegas killer, ruling that a racist comment by a juror during the penalty hearing did not affect the fairness of the trial.

Sean Deandre White, who is black, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole for the fatal shooting of Robert Davenport, a white man, during a robbery in the parking garage at Vegas World in December 1992.

After the verdict and during the penalty hearing, one juror reported to District Judge Addeliar D. Guy that another juror "likened the defendant to a gorilla, a baboon, a native tribesman who is not dangerous to his own people but would club or murder anyone outside of his territory."

After that incident, Guy stopped the jury deliberations on the penalty and a three-judge panel was convened to decide what sentence White should receive.

Justice Charles Springer, who wrote the 4-1 decision upholding the conviction, said Judge Guy, who has since retired, was a "highly respected jurist of Afro-American descent" who decided White had received a fair trial. Springer did concede, however, that the remark was "unfortunate."

Springer said the issue before the Supreme Court was "whether the jury's verdict in the guilt phase should be set aside by reason of the remarks attributed to this juror during deliberations in the penalty phase."

Springer said a defendant is entitled to an impartial jury but added, "We are unwilling to say that Judge Addeliar Guy, who was present and was much more aware of the circumstances relating to this incident than are the members of this appellate tribunal, abused his discretion in refusing to grant a new trial."

Justice Bob Rose dissented, saying White's conviction should be reversed and a new trial ordered, partly because the "blatant racial prejudice of some jurors denied White the right to an unbiased jury."

"The use of blatantly racist speech by non-black jurors about a black defendant reflects those jurors' racist predispositions and denied White his Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury," Rose said in his dissent. "Several of the jurors' expressions epitomize racist stereotypes of African Americans and evidence deep racial prejudice."

Rose also said Judge Guy should have allowed testimony about how eyewitness accounts are sometimes not reliable. The majority opinion said three witnesses identified White as the man who fired the shots.

"This crime comprises a particularly atrocious example of arbitrary, uncalled-for, cold-blooded murder," Springer said.