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Reconsidering Batson: Supreme Court to review death sentence handed down by all-white jury
By Matt Johnson Associate Editor, Vol. 21 The right to a trial by a jury of one’s peers is a right afforded to all criminal defendants facing a sentence of six months or more. Yet in the aftermath of an unpopular decision, the composition of a jury…Strip Searching in the Age of Colorblind Racism: The Disparate Impact of Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of the County of Burlington
In 2012, the Supreme Court of the United States decided Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of the County of Burlington. The Court held that full strip searches, including cavity searches, are permissible regardless of the existence of basic reasonable suspicion that the arrestee is in possession of contraband. Further, the Court held that law enforcement may conduct full strip searches after arresting an individual for a minor offense and irrespective of the circumstances surrounding the arrest. These holdings upended typical search jurisprudence. Florence sanctions the overreach of state power and extends to law enforcement and corrections officers the unfettered discretion to conduct graphically invasive, suspicion-less strip searches. The Court’s dereliction of duty is enough to concern all citizens. However, the impact of this phenomenal lapse will not be felt equally in the age of what Bonilla-Silva has termed colorblind racism. In 2013, in the case of Floyd v. City of New York, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin found that between January 2004 and June 2012, the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) made 4.4 million stops. She further found that more than eighty percent of these 4.4 million stops were of Blacks or Hispanics. Specifically, Judge Scheindlin found that in “52% of the 4.4 million stops, the person stopped was black, in 31% the person [stopped] was Hispanic, and in 10% the person stopped was white.” This rate of stops and frisks is grossly disproportionate to Black and Hispanic population representation in New York City and the United States in general. Further, as Judge Scheindlin astutely points out, “The NYPD’s policy of targeting ‘the right people’ for stops . . . is not directed toward the identification of a specific perpetrator, rather, it is a policy of targeting expressly identified racial groups for stops in general.” These findings make clear that Florence and colorblind racism enable law enforcement to wage war against the civil rights of minority citizens. This Article argues that the Court’s phenomenal lapse in Florence and its general abdication of law enforcement oversight inevitably subjects minorities, particularly Blacks and Latinos, to the blanket authority of law enforcement to harass and humiliate based on perfunctory arrests predicated on the slightest of infractions. Other legal analyses of Florence have largely ignored, and hence minimized, the salience of race when thinking about strip searches. In light of the significant consequential impacts of this decision on minority populations, this oversight is itself unreasonable. This paper will analyze the rationale and policy implications, particularly for people of color, in light of Florence. Finally, I will also propose policy recommendations to temper the projected negative impacts of the decision.Cross-Racial Identifications: Solutions to the “They All Look Alike” Effect
On a late summer evening in August of 1997, Nathan Brown was in his apartment rocking his young daughter to sleep when the police knocked on his door. The police sought Brown, one of a few Black men in his apartment complex, after a young White woman said she had been assaulted by a shirtless Black man wearing black shorts with strong body odor walking through the complex’s courtyard. Minutes later the police took Brown outside and put him in the patrol car for a one-on-one “showup.” They brought him out by himself to see the victim wearing black shorts without a shirt, and she quickly identified him as her attacker, even though he lacked a strong body odor. The victim explained later that she believed he had showered right after the attack, meaning he was her attacker. The victim again identified Brown as her attacker at trial. Though Brown took the stand in his own defense and testified that he was home at the time of the attack caring for his “fussy infant daughter”—an alibi corroborated by four of his family members—he was convicted of attempted aggravated rape and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison on the basis of the victim’s identification alone. In June 2014, Brown was exonerated of the crime when DNA evidence revealed that he could not have been the attacker. The DNA evidence was an exact match to a seventeen-year-old Black male who had been living within blocks of the apartment complex where the victim had been attacked. Nevertheless, Brown spent nearly seventeen years in prison for a crime that he did not commit.Blackness as Character Evidence
Federal Rule of Evidence 404 severely limits the government’s ability to offer evidence of a defendant’s character trait of violence to prove action in conformity with that trait on the occasion in question. The Rule states that such character evidence is generally inadmissible when offered to prove propensity. The Rule also allows the government to offer evidence of an alleged victim’s character for peacefulness in homicide cases where the defendant asserts the self-defense privilege. Although criminal defendants may offer character evidence under limited circumstances, Rule 404 creates a significant disincentive for doing so. Where a defendant offers evidence of an alleged victim’s character trait to prove action in conformity therewith, this decision not only opens the door for the prosecution to offer positive character evidence on behalf of the victim but it also allows the prosecutor to offer bad character evidence against the defendant. Similarly, if the government offers evidence of a homicide victim’s character for nonviolence to rebut a claim of self-defense, doing so opens the door to the introduction of the victim’s bad character evidence.Functionally Suspect: Reconceptualizing “Race” as a Suspect Classification
In the context of equal protection doctrine, race has become untethered from the criteria underlying its demarcation as a classification warranting heightened scrutiny. As a result, it is no longer an effective vehicle for challenging the existing social and political order; instead, its primary purpose under current doctrine is to signal the presence of an impermissible basis for differential treatment. This Symposium Article suggests that, to more effectively serve its underlying normative goals, equal protection should prohibit not discrimination based on race per se, but government actions that implicate the concerns leading to race’s designation as a suspect classification. For example, a possible equal protection violation would no longer be triggered by the mere act of racial categorization, but by classifications targeting groups characterized by a history of past discrimination, political powerlessness, or a trait that has no bearing on its members’ ability to participate in or contribute to society.By directly integrating the values underlying suspect classification into equal protection analysis, this Article attempts to replace the categorical use of race with a substantive approach that is less vulnerable to arguments grounded in colorblindness or postracialism and more focused on deconstructing existing racial hierarchies.Man still in jail after 897 days but hasn’t committed any crime
By Daniela Tagtachian Associate Editor Vol. 20 Executive Editor Vol. 21 Benito Vasquez-Hernandez, a 59 year old man, is awaiting to testify in a murder case. He has not done anything unlawful, he has committed no crime, but based on Oregon law, a judge has ordered him to…Alabama police paralyze Indian grandfather out for a walk
By Luis E. Gomez, Associate Editor, Vol. 20 Sureshbhai Patel was in the U.S. from India for only a week before Alabama police slammed him to the ground and left him temporarily paralyzed. According to civil rights attorney Henry F. Sherrod, Patel, who is 57-years-old, was out for a…Driving while black: Carolina city crafts racial awareness police policy
By Luis E. Gomez, Associate Editor Vol. 20 The protests in Ferguson have prompted a national debate about race and the militarization of local police forces. In Durham, North Carolina, racial profiling has played a major role in the city’s enforcement of drug laws. Civil rights advocates claim that black…Jordan Davis’ Killer Sentenced to Life
By: Lauren Tortorella, Associate Editor Vol. 20 In November 2012, Michael Dunn shot and killed Jordan Davis, 17. Three other passengers were injured. Dunn shot the teenagers after an argument over loud music. Dunn was convicted of first-degree murder for shooting Davis, and three counts of attempted murder. On October…Reformed gangsters lead new NYC anti-violence initiative
In August of 2014, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to create the Gun Violence Crisis Management System, which will provide nearly $12.7 million to neighborhood-based anti-violence organizations. One such group, called Gangstas Making Astronomical Community Change (GMACC), consists of reformed gangsters who hit the streets with…
