Court overturns man's death sentence after prosecutors used an 'expert' to portray Black men as violent

A Black man convicted of murdering a police officer in Ashtabula, Ohio 25 years ago had his death sentence revoked by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Tuesday after a three-judge panel determined his sentencing had been improperly influenced by clinical psychologist who testified that Black men were inherently more likely to commit violence.

In the decision, Judge Richard Allen Griffin argued that convicted murderer Odraye Jones deserves a new sentencing after his original sentencing hearing as marred by "racialized testimony."

As recounted by Griffin, prosecutors invited a psychologist to testify that Jones suffered from antisocial personality disorder, and he said that this disorder disproportionately affected "African-American urban males" such as Jones.

What's more, the psychologist cast doubt on whether there was any way to rehabilitate people like Jones, and he said the only way to deal with them was to "throw them away, lock them up."

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The psychologist also acknowledged that while not every young Black man diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder goes on to commit murder, he said that a major reason for this is so many of them have been imprisoned before they get the chance.

Griffin concluded that Jones's counsel during sentencing did an inadequate job of challenging this racist testimony and said that "there is a reasonable probability that Jones would have received a lesser sentence" if such testimony had not been introduced.

Read the full decision at this link (PDF).