United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Smith v. Texas, 311 U.S. 128 (1940)

Smith v. Texas

No. 33

Argued November 14, 1940

Decided November 25, 1940

311 U.S. 128

Syllabus

1. The conviction of a Negro upon an indictment returned by the grand jury of a county in which, at the time of such return and long prior thereto, Negroes were intentionally and systematically excluded from grand jury service, solely on account of their race and color, denies to him the equal protection of the laws, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution. P. 311 U. S. 132.

2. Upon review of a state court decision wherein a claim of a right under the Federal Constitution was denied, this Court will examine and appraise for itself the evidence relating to such right. P. 311 U. S. 130.

3. The evidence in this case sustains the claim of racial discrimination in the selection of the grand jury by which the Negro defendant was indicted; and, whether such discrimination was accomplished ingeniously or ingenuously, his conviction was void. Pp. 311 U. S. 130-132.

136 S.W.2d 842, reversed.

CERTIORARI, 309 U.S. 651, to review the affirmance of a judgment sentencing the petitioner upon his conviction of a crime. The trial court had overruled a motion to quash the indictment.