Rights Leaders Criticize Senate for OK of Judge
Civil rights leaders accused the Senate of ignoring the concerns of black Americans in voting Wednesday to confirm President Bush’s nomination of Alabama Assistant Atty. Gen. Edward Carnes to the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“I think Ed Carnes, once again, got an all-white jury,” said Stephen Bright, Southern Center for Human Rights director, after the 62-36 Senate vote.
Carnes, who has been Alabama’s top lawyer in death penalty appeals for more than a decade, was accused throughout the eight-month confirmation fight of racial insensitivity for defending Alabama prosecutors who systematically excluded blacks from death penalty trial juries.
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