Digital Commons Network^™

Race Discourse And Proposition 187, John Sw Park

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Proposition 187 inspired a visceral public discourse. Proponents and opponents of the measure discussed several themes important to contemporary political theory, particularly themes related to sovereignty and civil rights. This Note shows how participants in that debate-including people of color-spoke of "rights" in a way that denied the possibility for undocumented aliens to have rights. When citizens spoke, they did so in a way that implicitly linked rights to citizenship; in other words, they assumed that without citizenship, persons were not entitled to rights or rights-based claims. Ironically, the debate about Proposition 187 pointed to the achievements of a "civil …

Crime And Punishment: Benign Neglect Of Racism In The Criminal Justice System, Angela J. Davis

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article is a literary review and analysis of Malign Neglect: Race, Crime, and Punishment in America by Michael Tonry (1995). Part I of this review describes Tonry's analysis of the crime policies of the Reagan and Bush administrations. Part II discusses Tonry's indictment of the War on Drugs and criticizes his failure to acknowledge the effects of discriminatory prosecutorial practices and sentencing laws. Part III critiques Tonry's trivialization of the significance of race discrimination in the criminal justice system more generally. Part IV summarizes Tonry's proposals for change and stresses the importance of documenting, examining, and eliminating racial bias …

Race-Ing Legal Ethics, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Firearms In Violence "Scripts": The Dynamics Of Gun Events Among Adolescent Males, Deanna L. Wilkinson, Jeffrey Fagan

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, the use and deadly consequences of gun violence among adolescents has reached epidemic proportions. At a time when national homicide rates are declining, the increasing rates of firearm deaths among teenagers is especially alarming. Deaths of adolescents due to firearm injuries are disproportionately concentrated among nonwhites, and especially among African-American teenagers and young adults. Only in times of civil war have there been higher within-group homicide rates in the United States. There appears to be a process of self-annihilation among male African-American teens in inner cities that is unprecedented in American history. Unfortunately, few studies have examined …

The O.J. Simpson Verdict: A Lesson In Black And White, Christo Lassiter

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This article is an attempt to analyze the O.J. Simpson verdict and the press coverage of it, to suggest ways not only of improving criminal justice in a diverse community, but also of improving press coverage of criminal justice in a diverse community. Part Two of this essay is subdivided into two sections. The first section surveys the op-ed pages of major newspapers to evaluate the analysis of, and the commentary on, the O.J. Simpson verdict. The second section deconstructs the press' spin on the verdict. Part Three of this article discusses the role of a jury and proof beyond …

The Social Construction Of Identity In Criminal Cases: Cinema Verité And The Pedagogy Of Vincent Chin, Paula C. Johnson

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This article will discuss the use of the film, Who Killed Vincent Chin?, as a method: (1) to analyze the relationship of social constructions of identity, particularly race, on the rules and discretionary application of criminal jurisprudence; (2) to provide an interactive pedagogical tool for law teachers, especially criminal law teachers, to examine the social contexts of criminal jurisprudence from multiple perspectives; and (3) to examine the ability of criminal law doctrine to address issues of race.

The Empitness Of Majority Rule, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

In this Note, the author steers away from the current substantive debates surrounding the Voting Rights Act, its various amendments, and the "correct" way of interpreting its intended benefits and constitutionally accepted mandates. Instead, indirectly joins the many "radical" voices advocating for a departure from the majoritarian stranglehold-the decision-making process where fifty percent plus one of the voting population carry the election. The author does so not by suggesting yet another mechanism by which representatives may be elected, but by critiquing the perceived underpinnings of our democratic system of government. The author does not profess to delineate a definitive interpretation …

The Dangers Of Misappropriation: Misusing Martin Luther King, Jr.'S Legacy To Prove The Colorblind Thesis, Ronald Turner

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Article focuses on one particular aspect of the colorblind thesis: the misuse of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s image and legacy by liberals, neoliberals, conservatives, and neoconservatives "who cheaply invoke Dr. King's words even as they kill the substance and spirit of his radical message." The campaign supporting the adoption of Proposition 209, the California Civil Rights Initiative ("CCRI"), directly illustrates the misappropriation of King's legacy. Supporters of this anti-affirmative action proposal which calls for racial neutrality and a colorblind America, regularly invoked King's name, suggesting that he would have embraced such a measure. The California Republican Party prepared a …

Introduction: O.J. Simpson And The Criminal Justice System On Trial, Christopher B. Mueller

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Color Of Money, Paul F. Campos

Publications

No abstract provided.

Juror Empathy And Race, Douglas O. Linder

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

True Lies: The Role Of Pretext Evidence Under Batson V. Kentucky In The Wake Of St. Mary's Honor Center V. Hicks, David A. Sutphen

Michigan Law Review

In the process of determining whether a peremptory strike is valid, lower courts rely on the TI.tie VII burden-shifting framework originally laid out by the Supreme Court in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green As a result, the order and presentation of proof in Batson cases deliberately parallels the order and presentation of proof in TI.tie VII intentional discrimination suits. In light of this similarity, the Supreme Court's recent TI.tie VII ruling in St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks - that proof of pretext under the McDonnell Douglas framework is not the legal equivalent to proof of intentional discrimination - raises …

We Can't Go On Together With Suspicious Minds: Judicial Bias And Racialized Perspective In R. V. R.D.S., Richard F. Devlin

Dalhousie Law Journal

In recent years it has been recognized that the Canadian judiciary has been drawn from only a relatively small cross section of the community, specifically privileged white males. As a result there have been calls for, and some action in pursuit of, appointment processes that are designed to diversify the bench in order to render it more inclusive. Gender and race are the two primary categories that are invoked as the benchmarks of diversity. While it would appear that numerically there seems to be some very modest progress towards the goal of achieving a more inclusive judiciary, significant qualitative, institutional …

History's Stories, Stephan Landsman

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Stories of Scottsboro by James Goodman

Beyond Black Demons & White Devils: Antiblack Conspiracy Theorizing & The Black Public Sphere, Regina Austin

Florida State University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Black Rage: The Illegitimacy Of A Criminal Defense, 29 J. Marshall L. Rev. 205 (1995), Kimberly M. Copp

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Defending Racial Violence, Anthony V. Alfieri

Articles

No abstract provided.

We Can't Go On Together With Suspicious Minds: Judicial Bias And Racialized Perspective In R V Rds, Richard F. Devlin Frsc

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In recent years it has been recognized that the Canadian judiciary has been drawn from only a relatively small cross section of the community, specifically privileged white males. As a result there have been calls for, and some action in pursuit of, appointment processes that are designed to diversify the bench in order to render it more inclusive. Gender and race are the two primary categories that are invoked as the benchmarks of diversity. While it would appear that numerically there seems to be some very modest progress towards the goal of achieving a more inclusive judiciary, significant qualitative, institutional …

Asymmetrical Peremptories Defended: A Reply, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

Three years ago, with the publication of his article ''An Asymmetrical Approach to the Problem of Peremptories" in this journal, Professor Friedman initiated a debate on the subject that was taken up in 1994 by three prosecutors who offered a rebuttal that was also printed in these pages. Professor Friedman continues the debate.

The Punishment Of Hate: Toward A Normative Theory Of Bias-Motivated Crimes, Frederick M. Lawrence

Michigan Law Review

This article explores how bias crimes differ from parallel crimes and why this distinction makes a crucial difference in our criminal law. Bias crimes differ from parallel crimes as a matter of both the resulting harm and the mental state of the offender. The nature of the injury sustained by the immediate victim of a bias crime exceeds the harm caused by a parallel crime. Moreover, bias crimes inflict a palpable harm on the broader target community of the crime as well as on society at large, while parallel crimes do not generally cause such widespread injury.

The distinction between …

The Anticaste Principle, Cass R. Sunstein

Michigan Law Review

In this essay, I seek to defend a particular understanding of equality, one that is an understanding of liberty as well. I call this conception "the anticaste principle." Put too briefly, the anticaste principle forbids social and legal practices from translating highly visible and morally irrelevant differences into systemic social disadvantage, unless there is a very good reason for society to do so. On this view, a special problem of inequality arises when members of a group suffer from a range of disadvantages because of a group-based characteristic that is both visible for all to see and irrelevant from a …

Force African-American Fathers To Parent Their Delinquent Sons - A Factor To Be Considered At The Dispositional Stage, Lundy Langston

Journal Publications

What species can survive and function when a substantial segment of its young male population is harnessed by the burdens of substance abuse, unemployment, and incarceration? Empirical data suggests that these maladies have infected African-American males at a rate alarmingly disproportionate to that of other races. This trend, if it continues, suggests that America is creating a dysfunctional class. In this Article the term "dysfunctional" refers to a predicament wherein African-American males engage in violent activities.' Their conduct may be attributable to their inability to contribute to the family or smaller groups which form the foundation of the social order …

The Effects Of Race-Conscious Jury Selection On Public Confidence In The Fairness Of Jury Proceedings: An Empirical Puzzle, Nancy J. King

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In "Powers v. Ohio," the Court held that a peremptory challenge based on race violates the equal protection right of the challenged veniremember not to have her opportunities for jury service determined by her skin color. Powers and its progeny have placed defendants in the secondary role of enforcers of jurors' equal protection rights, granting defendants relief whenever jurors' rights are violated. This shift away from litigant rights to juror rights solved some doctrinal problems but created others. One of these problems is the subject of this essay-the task of judging when, if ever, the Constitution permits racial preferences in …

Unspeakable Suspicions: Challenging The Racist Consensual Encounter, Peter Schoenburg, Risa Evans

Law Faculty Scholarship

[Excerpt] "In recent years, law enforcement officials have honed a new technique for fighting the "War on Drugs:" the suspicionless police sweep of stations and vehicles involved in interstate mass transportation. Single officers or groups of officers approach unfortunate individuals in busses, trains, stations and airline terminals. A targeted traveller is requested to show identification and tickets, explain the purpose of his or her travels, and finally, at times, to consent to a luggage search. As long as "a reasonable person would understand that he or she could refuse to cooperate," the encounter between the law-enforcement official and the traveller …

Racial Jurymandering: Cancer Or Cure? A Contemporary Review Of Affirmative Action In Jury Selection, Nancy J. King

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Racial and ethnic minorities continue to be substantially underrepresented on criminal juries. At all stages of jury selection-venue choice, source list development, qualified list development, and jury panel and foreperson selection-traditional methods of selection exclude a disproportionate number of minorities. In response, a growing number of jurisdictions are employing race-conscious procedures to ensure that minorities are represented in juries and jury pools in proportions that equal or exceed their percentages in local communities. At the same time, the Supreme Court's most recent pronouncements on affirmative action and standing suggest that these reforms may be short-lived. Professor King suggests that the …

Capital Punishment's Future, Welsh S. White

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Capital Punishment in America by Raymond Paternoster

"Hell Man, They Did Invent Us:" The Mass Media, Law, And African Americans, Adeno Addis

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

South Carolina's Largest Slave Auctioneering Firm, Thomas D. Russell

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This article presents the original finding that South Carolina's legal system conducted a majority of the state's slave auctions during the antebellum years.Courts conducted slave auctions in several circumstances. Sheriffs sold the property of debtors; and courts also conducted or supervised sales in order to divide estates. Drawing upon extensive empirical analysis of primary sources in various South Carolina archives, this article compares the total number of slaves sold at court-ordered or court-supervised sales with the best empirical estimates for private slave sales - whether at auction or not. The conclusion is that the courts acted as the state's greatest …

Prostitution: Where Racism & Sexism Intersect, Vednita Nelson

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Black women find themselves in a unique and extremely difficult position in our society. They are forced to deal with the oppression that arises from being Black in a white-supremacist culture and the oppression that arises from being female in a male-supremacist culture. In order to examine the experience of being Black and female, this paper attempts to describe that very difficult, tight space where Black women attempt to survive-that space where racism and sexism intersect.

State Responses To Task Force Reports On Race And Ethnic Bias In The Courts, Suellyn Scarnecchia

Articles

While several states have embarked on studies of race and ethnic bias in their courts, Minnesota is only the sixth to publish its report to date. As Minnesota joins the ranks of states with published reports, it is worthwhile to assess the impact of the five earlier published reports from other states. Final reports have been published in Michigan (1989), Washington (1990), New York (1991), Florida (1991) and New Jersey (1992). The published reports make findings and provide several specific recommendations for change. This article will review the published findings and recommendations of the task forces and will discuss the …