Md. L. Rev., 1994

Wisconsin Law Review, 2018

The United States is facing a twofold crisis: police killings of people of color and unaccountability for these killings in the criminal justice system. In many instances, the officers’ use of deadly force is captured on video and often appears clearly unjustified, but grand and petit juries still fail to indict and convict, leaving many baffled. This Article provides an explanation for these failures: juror reliance on “racial character evidence.” Too often, jurors consider race as evidence in criminal trials, particularly in police killing cases where the victim was a person of color. Instead of focusing on admissible evidence, jurors rely on race to determine the defendant’s innocence, the victim’s propensity for violence, and the witnesses’ credibility. This Article delineates the ways in which juror racial bias is utilized to take on evidentiary value at trial and constructs evidence law solutions to increase racial equality in the courtroom.

1996

The destinies of the two races in this country are indissolubly linked together.-Justice Harlan Plessy v Ferguson Justice precedes peace.-Isaiah On October 12, 1994, the Governor of California placed a phone call to the chief prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson trial. The prosecutor was scheduled to begin jury selection in the case early the following week, and the Governor expressed his firm belief that a racially representative jury panel would best serve the interests of the people of the State of California as well as the interests of justice. The prosecutor stated that while she agreed in principle, her job required her to take all necessary and proper steps to secure the conviction of the defendant in every criminal case, regardless of the case's political sensitivity. The Governor said that he did not see it that way, and that, for his part, he was confident that any government employee deliberately jeopardizing the peace and safety of the community as a whole for the sake of an ethical code would not advance far. The prosecutor admitted that the Governor had a point. The Governor was glad she saw it his way, and stated that he was grateful that she had taken time away from her busy schedule to chat. While this conversation never occurred, it would not be too surprising if it had. From almost every angle, the Simpson case had racially charged Andrew G. Deiss received his J.D. from the Unversity of Chicago in 1995 and his B.A. from Yale University in 1986. He is currently an Associate with the law firm of Van Cott, Bagley, Cornwall & McCarthy in Salt Lake City, Utah. 324 Roundtable characteristics. Indeed, few are "oblivious to the interracial marriage at the heart of this story."' The accusation that Simpson was framed by Officer Mark Fuhrman because of racial animosity is by now well-known. Even before the trial, it had been discussed in diverse publications ranging from "an ultralurid tabloid, The Globe, to the most up-market mass-circulation magazine in America, The New Yorker." 2 The racial tension surrounding the case was such that on July 19th, district attorney Gil Garcetti felt it necessary to meet with fifteen black leaders who were concerned that Simpson would not get a fair trial; they urged him not to seek the death penalty. 3 Even at that stage, opinion polls confirmed that the O.J. Simpson trial had significant racial overtones. One poll showed that, while 62 percent of white Californians thought it was "likely" that Simpson committed the murders, only 38 percent of black Californians did. 4 In light of this disparity, it is striking to note that the jury that the prosecution finally accepted was 70 percent black, in a city where only 10 percent of the population is African-American.' After this jury was empaneled, U.C.L.A. law professor Peter Arenella declared that "the defense should be dancing in the streets."6 Prosecutors also had reason to feel relieved, though they probably did not feel that way at the time. With the dust from the Rodney King riots just beginning to settle, it is likely that the O.J. trial posed a real threat to public safety and property. As two young black men told one reporter, "L.A. gonna burn to the ground if O.J. convicted." 7 Empaneling an all-white jury would have only exacerbated the effects of a conviction. Even before Simpson's arrest, courts and legislators across the country were developing mechanisms to ensure that juries represent a racial crosssection of their communities.! The idea is that such mechanisms will increase public confidence in the outcomes of criminal trials, or at least minimize public outrage and prevent race riots sparked by controversial verdicts. 9 Florida and California have passed statutes requiring judges to consider the racial composition of the communities involved when they decide to transfer venue." 0 Other jurisdictions have statutes mandating that jury lists, which are

The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 2006

This article uses accounts of three murder trials of the 1950s to examine the role played in the criminal justice process by stereotyped and prejudicial attitudes towards women and people from ethnic minorities. All three defendants were executed although it is arguable that none of them should have been. Ruth Ellis's case highlights the gendered nature of criminal justice in the 1950s, especially in regard to domestic violence and the defence of provocation. Mahmood Mattan's case illustrates the kind of language and assumptions about race which could go unchallenged in the courtroom at that time. Finally, the account of the trial and execution of Styllou Christofi sees these two elements combined. While a significant proportion of the article is concerned with the historical record, comparisons are also drawn with some elements of modern understanding of gender and race in the criminal justice system.

Santa Clara law review, 2016

grand-jury-begins-hearingevidence-in-eric-garner-case.html. Eric Garner died while in a chokehold administered by Staten Island Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo on July 17, 2014. On December 3, 2014, the Staten Island Grand Jury issued its decision not to indict Pantaleo. In February 2016, a federal grand jury was empaneled to determine if federal charges should be brought.

The Journal of Politics, 2023

Racial disparities in police use of force are common in the United States and may be widest for Black Americans relative to other racial groups. Determining racial bias as the cause of such disparities is difficult due to a lack of systematic use of force data and inferential challenges to discovering and estimating racial bias by police officers. Our theoretical model predicts that in less dangerous situations, police will be more likely to use force against Black civilians than against White civilians. The model implies different fatality rates among White and Black civilians shot by the police, which we empirically evaluate with original data for all officer-involved shootings of civilians from 2005-2017 in nine local police jurisdictions in the U.S. The model and test permit us to begin to credibly assess civilian fatality rates, conditional upon civilians being shot by the police. Our theoretical implication and empirical findings provide novel evidence of racial bias in fatal police shootings of civilians.

American Journal of Criminal Justice, 2014

Research that attempts to document racial or gender disparities in the criminal justice system inevitably paints a distorted picture if only one point in the criminal justice process is examined. For example, studies that look at who is sentenced to death among a group convicted of first-degree murder will miss exposure of biases that occur at earlier stages of the criminal justice process. In this paper, we looked at prosecutorial files on over 400 homicide cases from Caddo Parish, Louisiana (the Shreveport area). Results indicate that even after controlling for aggravating factors, cases with White female victims result in thicker files than other homicides, indicating more prosecutorial effort in attempting to secure convictions in such cases. This, in turn, was related to more severe sentencing of offenders convicted of killing whites and women. On the other hand, cases with black victims resulted in the thinnest case files and the least severe sentences.

Journal of crime & justice, 2008

Previous research has suggested that the racial composition of a jury plays a role in the likelihood of conviction of certain defendants. In general, it has been supported that White jury members are more likely to vote to convict Black defendants, while Black jury members are more likely to vote to acquit Black defendants. Prior research has suffered from flaws that could possibly affect these outcomes. For instance, the use of mock juries to examine jury behavior creates artificiality and may not adequately reflect real jury decision-making. Additionally, research on real juries either focuses on certain types of cases (i.e., capital cases) or suffers from problems relating to insufficient or incomplete trial or jury data. As a result, existing jury research has failed to folly capture or explain the factors that are related to jury decision-making in non-capital felony trials. The current research examined case outcomes in real jury trials of defendants charged with non-capital felonies. In particular, the current study analyzed the relationship between the racial composition of the jury and conviction of black defendants. Results indicated a significant relationship between these two variables.

Social Science Research Network, 2016

Racial Discrimination and Jury Selection BY PETER A. JOY AND KEVIN C. McMUNIGAL In an effort to eliminate a long history of racial discrimination in jury selection, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), that jurors cannot be excluded on the basis of race through a prosecutor's use of peremptory challenges. Despite that ruling, racial discrimination in jury selection has remained a persistent problem. In May 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court decided yet another case, Foster v. Chatman, No. 14-8349 (U.S. May 23, 2016), available at http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/14-8349_6k47.pdf, finding that prosecutors' use of peremptory challenges to exclude all eligible potential African American jurors to achieve an all-white jury in Georgia violated Batson. That jury sentenced 18-year-old Timothy Foster, an African American man, to death for the murder of an elderly white woman. Nearly 30 years later, the Court concluded that the prosecutors were motivated in substantial part by race when they struck two potential jurors from the jury. Emphasizing the seriousness of racial discrimination in jury selection, the Court admonished: "Two peremptory strikes on the basis of race are two more than the Constitution allows." The Supreme Court may have granted Foster a new trial based on Batson, but that is unlikely to stop racial discrimination in jury selection. Since the Court decided Batson 40 years ago, issues of racially motivated use of peremptory challenges frequently arise. In that time, several cases have reached the Court, and countless more have gone to state and federal courts of appeals. In view of the intractable problem presented by the use of peremptory challenges, commentators have recommended a variety of solutions to eliminate racial discrimination in jury selection and achieve more inclusive and representative juries. In this column, we explore the problems with Batson as a constitutional rule as well as the legal ethics of racial discrimination in jury selection. We also consider alternatives to peremptory challenges, and conclude by endorsing alternatives to the current system of peremptory challenges as the best alternatives to curb racial discrimination in jury selection. The Problem of Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection Racial discrimination in jury selection has long plagued the criminal justice system in the United States. Until the 1875 Civil Rights Act outlawed race-based discrimination in jury service, African American jurors were customarily, and legally, excluded from juries. Resistance to the Civil Rights Act was strong, and it took litigation through several decades until courts invalidated state laws restricting jury service to whites. After the repeal of de jure racial discrimination in jury composition, local officials achieved the same results well into the 1960s by excluding African Americans from jury rolls or jury panels or venires by various means.