Participant Info
- Case
- Michel v. Louisiana
- Citation
- 350 US 91
- Type
- Dissenting
- Year
- 1955
- Description
In Michel v. Louisiana, the Court holds that criminal defendants had a reasonable opportunity to raise constitutional objections about the way they were indicted and convicted and, therefore, are not permitted to raise such issues on appeal. In a dissent, joined by Justice Douglas and Chief Justice Warren, Black seems incredulous that the Court could render such an unjust decision. “Petitioners, who are colored, were indicted, convicted and sentenced to death in a Louisiana state court. The grand jury indicting the petitioners was drawn from the parish of Orleans where 32% of the population is colored. Only once within the memory of people living in that parish had a colored person been selected as a grand juror. That juror, who happened to look like a white man, was selected under the mistaken idea that he was one. The foregoing facts are not disputed here.” Black notes, for example, that the period of time state law allowed to challenge the validity of his grand jury indictment had already expired long before one of the defendants was even arrested and returned to Louisiana to stand trial.
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