PIERRE, S.D. — The legal team defending Charles Rhines — who is scheduled to be executed in South Dakota next week — filed a petition for certiorari today, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to order a district court to hear new evidence of some jurors’ anti-gay bias. Rhines was sentenced to death in 1993 despite concerning evidence that his sexual orientation may have played a role in that sentence.
Multiple jurors confirmed that Rhines’ sexual orientation was discussed at length during sentencing deliberations. One juror stated that Rhines “shouldn’t be able to spend his life with men in prison.” Another recalled a juror commenting that “if he’s gay we’d be sending him where he wants to go if we voted for [life without parole].” A third juror confirmed that “[t]here was lots of discussion of homosexuality. There was a lot of disgust.”
The American Civil Liberties Union filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to hear Rhines’ appeal. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take Rhines’ case in 2018 and again in 2019. Late yesterday, a federal and state court both denied outstanding appeals.
Ria Tabacco Mar, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project, issued the following statement:
“Anti-gay bias played an undeniable role in Charles Rhines’ death sentence. This is irrevocably at odds with our Constitution and values. As Chief Justice Roberts has written, ‘[o]ur law punishes people for what they do, not who they are.’ The Court must make sure the new evidence of anti-gay prejudice is heard on the merits before Mr. Rhines is executed.”
More information and case docs are here: https://www.aclu.org/cases/rhines-v-young
About the ACLU of South Dakota
The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of civil liberties and civil rights. The ACLU of South Dakota is part of a three-state chapter that also includes North Dakota and Wyoming. The team in South Dakota is supported by staff in those states.
The ACLU believes freedoms of press, speech, assembly, and religion, and the rights to due process, equal protection and privacy, are fundamental to a free people. In addition, the ACLU seeks to advance constitutional protections for groups traditionally denied their rights, including people of color, women, and the LGBTQ communities. The ACLU of South Dakota carries out its work through selective litigation, lobbying at the state and local level, and through public education and awareness of what the Bill of Rights means for the people of South Dakota.
###