JACKSON, Mississippi (WLBT) – The state’s highest court has denied a death row inmate’s request to disclose evidence to determine whether his attorney failed him in jury selection.

On Thursday, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that Tony Terrell Clark’s request to appeal a lower court’s order denying disclosure of evidence should be granted.

Clark, who was sentenced to death in 2018 for killing a 13-year-old boy who worked at his father’s supermarket, argued that his lawyer failed to provide the court with evidence that several black jurors were wrongfully dismissed from his case while several white jurors were allowed to remain in the trial.

The Mississippi Court of Appeals denied Clark’s request for disclosure of documents supporting his claims.

In a one-page decision, the Supreme Court rejected his application to appeal against this decision.

It is a ruling that Judge Leslie King denounced in a seven-page response.

“This Court consistently concludes that defendants have not proven pretext when the State rejects black jurors,” he wrote. “This Court now obstructs a defendant’s attempt to prove pretext. It seems to require defense attorneys to go beyond the ordinary and read the collective opinion of prosecutors to prove pretext, but when a defendant attempts to conduct a thorough investigation to meet this Court’s impossibly high standards of proof … this Court denies him that opportunity.”

Clark argues that three black jurors were dismissed because the state claimed they had the same last names as others who had been arrested and convicted in Madison County.

However, Clark claims that several white jurors also had the same names as “prominent figures in the Madison County criminal justice system,” but no list was ever presented to prove this.

He claims his attorney should have obtained this information during jury selection but did not.

King wrote that the rules governing appeals in post-death penalty proceedings allow disclosure of information that could support a request for relief.

“Notably, the applicant does not have to prove to any particular degree that discretionary discovery will succeed in his application for post-conviction relief; he (must) only show that it is ‘likely’ to be ‘helpful’ in ‘investigating, preparing and presenting’ the issues,” King wrote. “So if it is ‘likely’ to be ‘helpful’ simply to promote a better investigation, it should be granted.”

King goes on to say that this is Clark’s first application for post-conviction remedies and that he will likely lose further disclosure rights in future PCRs.

“Therefore, this is probably his only substantive attempt in this area,” he wrote.

Judge Jim Kitchens agreed with King.

The majority opinion was written by Judge Dawn Beam, joined by Judges Michael Randolph, Josiah Coleman, James Maxwell, Robert Chamberlin, David Ishee and Kenneth Griffis.

The ruling came about a year after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his appeal, holding that Clark’s conviction should be overturned and replaced with a life sentence without parole after the state wrongfully disqualified potential black jurors.

The jury consisted of eleven white members, one black member and two white alternates.

Want more WLBT news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

Do you see a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please Click here to report on it and include the story headline in your email.

All rights reserved.