Huffman v. Florida

Mr. Justice Marshall, with whom Mr. Justice Brennan joins,

dissenting.

Petitioner, a Negro male, was convicted by an all-white jury of raping a white woman, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.1 In a post-conviction proceeding, he moved for a new trial on the ground that racial bias in the jury selection process deprived him of his Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury and his Fourteenth Amendment rights to equal protection and due process. The trial court denied the motion, and the Florida District Court of Appeal affirmed without opinion, 336 So. 2d 612 (1976). With three justices…