Supreme Court to consider appeal over exclusion of black jurors

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will consider whether prosecutors improperly singled out potential black jurors in notes and then excluded them all from the death penalty trial of a black Georgia man accused of murder.

The justices agreed today to hear the appeal of Timothy Foster, who was sentenced to death in 1987 after being convicted of murdering a 79-year-old white woman in Rome, Ga.

Lawyers for Foster say prosecutors' notes obtained through an open-records request show that the name of each potential black juror was highlighted and the word "black" was circled next to the race question on questionnaires for the black prospective jurors.

Georgia officials say prosecutors had race-neutral reasons for striking the potential jurors.