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The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear - for a 2nd time - the case of a Texas death-row inmate who has said that racial bias tainted his 1986 murder conviction in Dallas. Last year, the high court returned the case of Thomas Joe Miller-El to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying the lower court had erred when it refused to allow Mr. Miller-El the right to appeal his case on the issue of jury selection. Mr. Miller-El, who is black, had argued that a history of biased jury selection by the Dallas district attorney's office had played a part in his case. The Supreme Court ordered the 5th Circuit to allow the appeal, which was reheard and decided by the lower court earlier this year. The 5th Circuit again rejected Mr. Miller-El's claims, saying that selection of only one black juror in his case was not part of any "purposeful" discrimination. Mr. Miller-El's lawyers had vowed to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court once again. The case will probably be argued early next year. Last year's tartly worded 8-1 high court decision decided only that Mr. Miller-El could appeal his case, not whether it had merit. By choosing to hear the case again, the Supreme Court has decided to hear the specifics of Mr. Miller-El's charges of jury selection bias in Dallas. While the Supreme Court has not ruled specifically on Mr. Miller-El's situation, last year's decision released in February 2003 described the Dallas district attorney's office of the time as "suffused with bias." That earlier decision also suggested a developing test of wills between the U.S. Supreme Court and the 5th Circuit which includes Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. The nation's highest court has been critical of several 5th Circuit rulings involving fairness in criminal trials, particularly death-penalty cases. Mr. Miller-El was convicted in Dallas of the November 1985 murder of Douglas Walker during the armed robbery of an Irving hotel. See also February 16, 2002 and February 25, 2003)