Week of March 17, 2019 – Race/Ethnicity & the Courts
To stay on track — Continue to work on your visual component including the inexpensive take-away item.
— Friday, March 22nd – The Last Day to Drop Class via SOLAR
— March 25-29 – Spring Break (no classes)
— Wednesday, April 10th, beginning of class – Visual Component and self assessment due
Preparatory Readings:
- Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic. The Derrick Bell Reader. — Ch. 7.
- Gordon Fellman. Rambo and the Dalai Lama. — entirety
- Samuel Walker and others. The Color of Justice. — Ch. 5.
- Documentary: “—” (to be shown in class)
Lecture related links:
- Critical Race Theory
- “Who’s Habermas? Why Habermas?”
- W.I. Thomas “Definition of the Situation
Concepts to be covered:
- peremptory challenge
- contextual discrimination
- “race card”
- Swain v. Alabama
- Batson v. Kentucky
- voir dire
- jury pool
- jury nullification
- race dependent jury selection
- underrepresentation
- prosecutorial racial misconduct
Discussion Questions:
Note: In order to answer these discussion questions, you will need to do the assigned readings. Due: Wednesday, March 20th.
- Racial minorities comprise a very small proportion of the lawyers and judges in the United States. What accounts for this? What difference, if any, would it make if more of the lawyers representing criminal defendants were racial minorities? [Walker, p 240, Q. 2] What would Fellman and Bell say? Why.
- Why did the case of the Jena Six spark so much controversy? Did Reed Walter, the district attorney, overcharge the six African American students? Should the white students who hung the nooses in the tree have been charged with hate crimes? [Walker, p. 240, Q. 6]
- Should the black community look to whites for support, or learn to tend its own garden? When whites are the main architects of civil rights breakthroughs, is it likely to endure? [D&S, p. 217]
Self-Assessment Questions for Visual Component (due Wednesday, April 10th)
- If working in a group, a) list the names of the individuals in your group, and b) explain the division of labor, (i.e., who did what?) as well as your individual contributions
- Based on the 6Cs, what grade have you rightfully earned on the visual component of your project? Why.
Suggestions for Related Activities:
Note: Other activities related to this week’s topics.
- Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. An excellent resource for juvenile justice related issues.
- National Criminal Justice Resource Service. Administered by the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
- Go to the county courthouse, and observe “law in action.” Relate your observations to this week’s readings.
- Research the following cases: Swain v. Alabama or Batson v. Kentucky.
- Examine one or more of the following issues:
- peremptory challenges
- jury nullification
- voir dire
- playing the “race card”
Recommended Readings:
- Paula DiPerna. Juries on Trial.
- Alan Dershowitz. The Best Defense.
- Steve Bogira. Courtroom 302: A Year Behind the Scenes in an American Courthouse.
- Deborah L. Rhode. Access to Justice.
- Mark Weiner. Black Trials.
- Dan T. Carter. Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South.
- Anthony Lewis. Gideon’s Trumpet.
- Harriet Ziskin. The Blind Eagle.
- Jonathan Casper. Criminal Courts: The Defendant’s Perspective.
- Samuel Walker. Taming the System: The Control of Discretion in the Criminal Justice System.
- Kenneth Culp Davis. Discretionary Justice.
- James P. Levine. Juries and Politics.
- Bruce Wright. Black Robes, White Justice.
- Paulo Freire. Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
- Alfie Kohn. No Contest. The Case Against Competition.
- Thomas Kuhn. Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
- Desmond Tutu. No Future Without Forgiveness.
- Jurgen Habermas. Between Facts and Norms.
- Martha Minow. Making All the Difference: Exclusion, Inclusion and American Law. Check out this link Martha Minow on the Dear Habermas site.
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Created: July 27, 2003
Latest Update: March 14, 2019
Susan Takata 