Judge’s Error on Jury Racial Bias Allegations Warrants New Trial

A judge’s failure to deeply probe allegations that racial bias may have tainted the jury in a murder trial poses a substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice and merits a redo, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held Tuesday.

The circumstances of the case “establish too great a risk to bear that a juror was racially biased against the defendant and openly shared such views with his fellow jurors while deliberating on the defendant’s guilt or innocence,” Chief Justice Kimberly Budd wrote for the court.

The appeal was brought by Pedro Vazquez, who was found guilty of second-degree murder and ...