News / FJP Releases
FJP Urges Texas Court to Halt Execution and Confront Racial Discrimination in Capital Jury Selection
March 4, 2026 (Austin, TX) — Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP) has filed an amicus brief with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Ex Parte Cedric Allen Ricks, urging the Court to grant habeas relief in light of newly disclosed evidence demonstrating racial discrimination in jury selection during Mr. Ricks’s capital trial.
Mr. Ricks is currently scheduled for execution on March 11, 2026.
Recently uncovered prosecutors’ jury selection notes provide stark evidence that Black prospective jurors were struck because of their race. Such conduct violates the United States Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Batson v. Kentucky, which prohibits the use of peremptory strikes to exclude jurors on the basis of race and establishes constitutional safeguards to prevent discrimination in jury selection.
“When racial discrimination shapes who sits on a jury, the result is not simply flawed, it is fundamentally unjust,” said FJP Executive Director Aramis Ayala. “Additionally, excluding individuals from service based on race not only violates their Equal Protection right to participate but also prevents communities from achieving full representation within this essential civic institution. When evidence demonstrates that racial discrimination tainted jury selection, courts have the obligation to set aside convictions secured through that unconstitutional discrimination.”
Racially discriminatory jury selection inflicts a triple harm:
- It deprives defendants of their right to a fair trial under the Fourteenth Amendment.
- It denies excluded jurors the opportunity to participate in one of the most important civic duties in a democracy.
- It undermines community trust in the justice system, particularly in capital cases where the stakes are life and death.
Prosecutors serve not as advocates for conviction at any cost, but as ministers of justice. Their duty is to pursue justice, ensure fairness, and uphold constitutional protections. When credible evidence demonstrates that racial bias infected the jury selection process, the only path consistent with the rule of law is transparent review and correction.
Allowing a death sentence to proceed under these circumstances would not only be a grave miscarriage of justice, it would further damage confidence in the courts and the justice system as a whole.
With Mr. Ricks’s execution imminent, FJP urges the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to grant relief and ensure that the constitutional protections required by Batson are not merely symbolic, but meaningfully enforced–particularly when life is at stake.
This brief marks the third time in the past year that FJP has filed an amicus brief confronting discriminatory jury practices. FJP also filed briefs in Pitchford v. Cain and Bell & Sims v. State of North Carolina, underscoring the persistent and recurring nature of unconstitutional jury selection practices that courts continue to confront.