Justice Sonia Sotomayor has publicly criticized the Mississippi Supreme Court for its handling of racial bias claims in the case of Tony Terrell Clark, a death row inmate convicted by a jury that was predominantly white. In a recent Supreme Court order, Sotomayor pointed out that prosecutors systematically excluded Black jurors at a rate over five times that of white jurors. She noted that the court's approach reveals a troubling double standard, where Black jurors were struck for not holding extreme pro-death penalty views while white jurors expressing doubts were not excluded. Although the U.S. Supreme Court denied Clark's latest appeal, Sotomayor expressed concern over Mississippi's stringent standard for proving racial bias, which requires defendants to demonstrate that the trial outcome would have changed if not for the exclusion of Black jurors. She emphasized the need for the Supreme Court to address this issue, citing that even one racially discriminatory strike is unacceptable under the Constitution. This marks the second instance where Sotomayor has voiced alarm regarding Clark's situation, having previously dissented in 2023 when the court declined his first appeal, asserting that racial bias influenced the jury's selection process.