Rounding-up some news and commentary as SCOTUS hears argument on latest round of capital insanity

Albert Einstein is generally credited with the aphorism that "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results." That quote came to mind as I was thinking about the Supreme Court's consideration this morning of a Batson claim in Flowers v. Mississippi. Here is a brief accounting of just some of the backstory of this case (with emphasis added) from this SCOTUSblog post when cert was granted:

[T]he justices will once again review the case of Curtis Flowers, who was sentenced to death for an infamous quadruple murder at a furniture store in Winona, Mississippi.  Flowers was tried six times.  During the first four trials, prosecutor Doug Evans was twice found to have violated the constitutional ban on racial discrimination in selecting jurors: He had struck all 10 of the potential African-American jurors, while he used all of his strikes to remove African Americans from the jury pool in the third and fourth trials.  Flowers’ fifth trial deadlocked, but at his sixth trial, Evans allowed the first African-American juror to be seated but then struck the remaining five African-American jurors. 

Reviewing my blog archives, I noticed that it was nine years ago(!) that I blogged here about a local article and asked "Will sixth time be the charm in capital trial(s) of Curtis Flowers?"

Here are a few up-to-date discussions of and commentary on the case as it now comes before the US Supreme Court on the issue of whether the Mississippi Supreme Court properly applied Batson v. Kentucky in this version of the case:

• From ABC News, "After blacks kicked off juries, Mississippi death row inmate brings racial bias claim to Supreme Court"

• From The Atlantic, "A Racial Pattern So Obvious, Even the Supreme Court Might See It: Flowers v. Mississippi reveals a rickety American legal system."

• From CNN, "Mississippi death row inmate, after six trials, claims race discrimination"

• From Jurist, "The Supreme Court Must Stand for Equality in Upcoming Jury-Selection Case"

• From SCOTUSblog, "Argument preview: Justices to weigh allegations of racial discrimination in jury selection"