A federal appeals court has rejected an appeal from a white supremacist who challenged his murder conviction after his defense attorneys tried to pick a jury with as many black members as possible.
Chevie Kehoe was sentenced to life in prison for the 1996 killings of an Arkansas family. His accomplice received a death sentence.
Kehoe argues that he received ineffectual counsel because of his attorneys' jury-selection strategy.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Kehoe's conviction Monday.
The opinion says Kehoe's attorneys made a "strategic decision" to pick black jurors because the attorneys thought black jurors would be less likely than whites to impose the death penalty.
The 8th Circuit says that although the attorneys' strategy may have been "misguided," it's not enough to throw out Kehoe's conviction.