ST. LOUIS – Advocates for a black death row inmate in Missouri say he was unfairly sentenced when African-Americans were excluded from the jury at his St. Louis County trial.
Andre Cole is scheduled to die Tuesday for killing a man in 1998 in a fit of anger over child support payments.
On Monday, members of a coalition that includes Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union called on Gov. Jay Nixon to halt the execution. They also want him to appoint a board to examine concerns that there is racial bias in Missouri's jury selection process.
A spokesman for Nixon says the clemency petition is under review.
An all-white jury convicted Cole after prosecutors removed three black potential jurors from the pool of candidates.
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