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No Harm, No Foul? A Critique Of The Current Legal Framework Dealing With Impermissible Closing Appeals To Racial Bias, Paul Christopher Estaris Torio
No Harm, No Foul? A Critique Of The Current Legal Framework Dealing With Impermissible Closing Appeals To Racial Bias, Paul Christopher Estaris Torio
Paul Christopher Estaris Torio
No Harm, No Foul? examines the friction that exists between the core legal principles of zealous advocacy and equality in one particular but prominent context: racial appeals in closing arguments. Specifically, the article evaluates the harmless error principle, which underpins the current framework for either upholding or overturning a lower court’s decision on the grounds of improper race-based summations, and its role in exacerbating this friction.
The author argues that because the overall structure of the harmless error test gives attorneys the incentive to use racial appeals in closing argument, perhaps the most influential stage of a trial, the entire …