In the 1967 case of Jones v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of petitioner Robert Lee Jones, who had been convicted for rape and sentenced to death by a Georgia court. The primary issue was whether or not racial discrimination occurred during jury selection for his trial as all African American potential jurors were systematically excluded from serving on the jury due to their race. This practice violated Jones' Fourteenth Amendment rights which guarantees equal protection under law regardless of race or color. The Supreme Court held that systematic exclusion based on race is unconstitutional and reversed the judgment made by lower courts, ordering a new trial for Mr.Jones.

In the dissenting opinion for Jones v. Georgia, 1967, Justice Harlan argued that the majority's decision to overturn a conviction based on an allegedly racially discriminatory jury selection process was misguided. He contended that there was insufficient evidence of systematic exclusion of African Americans from juries in Fulton County, where the trial took place. The fact that no black person had served on a grand or petit jury in over two years did not necessarily indicate racial discrimination as it could be attributed to chance or other non-discriminatory factors such as age and economic status which might disqualify potential jurors regardless of race. Furthermore, he pointed out inconsistencies in how different cases involving similar issues were decided by the court and criticized what he saw as an overly broad interpretation of equal protection clause under Fourteenth Amendment by his colleagues.