Gray v. Mississippi

More than 10 years ago, in Davis v. Georgia, 429 U. S. 122 (1976) (per curiam), this Court on certiorari summarily reversed a judgment of a state court and ruled that when a trial court misapplies Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U. S. 510 (1968), and excludes from a capital jury a prospective juror who in fact is qualified to serve, a death sentence imposed by *651the jury cannot stand.1 This case presents the question whether the Court now should abandon that ruling and, instead, subject an impermissible exclusion to harmless-error review.

I

In June 1982, petitioner David Randolph Gray was indicted…