This document will examine racial discrimination during jury selections. Beginning with the background history, will demonstrate how racial discriminating came into play. George Stinny, and Emmett Till and other African americans are victims who both had been racially discriminated against. Supreme Court rulings will be a guide to help understand each of the cases and how they each helped change the justice system.
Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow Laws, also known as black codes, were codes created in the south that separated African Americans from White Americans. A few of the Laws were as follows:
1. African American men were not allowed to shake White American men hands because it displayed equality between the two races.
2. The two races were not allowed to eat with one another. If they were to do so, whites ate first and blacks at second.
3. African Americans were not allowed to show their affection to their significant other in public.
4. Blacks were to always be respectful to whites.
Those were a few examples of the Jim Crow Laws and they demonstrate the inequality of African Americans and White Americans- “separate but equal” (.
Civil Rights Era
Moving forward, African Americans and did not have citizenship rights. African Americans were still not able to vote, attend restaurants with White Americans, go to the same schools as White Americans, or even serve on a jury. The civil rights movement is a movement that established citizen rights for African Americans. In the early to mid-1960s, African Americans slowly gained those rights with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights of 1965. These acts changed the world tremendously and provided more opportunities to minorities and women (6 Bumiller, Kristin 1992.
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...hallenges, the prosecutor removed all African American jurors and left Batson to be charged by an all- white jury. Can a party remove jurors who are similar to the defendant? The court ruled that when removing individuals from a jury, they must prove that the reason for doing so was for a justified reason (Batson V. Kentucky 1986).
Finally, the background history displayed the progression of racial discrimination before civil rights to today’s times. George Stinny, and Emmett Till were guaranteed to encounter with a racial justice system because of the Jim Crow laws and Civil rights. After civil rights, the justice system created revised rules and regulations to everyone including African Americans and other races. Clearly, most of the other articles were before the year of 2010 followed by the Supreme Court rulings making it equal for all races to have fair trials.
Jim Crow laws were a formal, codified system of racial apartheid that dominated the American South for three quarters of a century beginning in the 1890s. (Jim Crow Laws, PBS). Jim Crow laws had the same ideals that slave codes had. At this time slavery had been abolished, but because of Jim Crow, the newly freed black people were still looked at as inferior. One of the similarities between slave codes and Jim Crow laws was that both sets of laws did not allow equal education opportunities. The schools were separated, of course, which cause the white schools to be richer and more advanced in education than black schools. This relates to slave codes because slaves were not allowed to read which hindered their learning of when they were able to read and write. Another similarity is alcohol. In the Jim Crow era persons who sold beer or wine were not allowed to serve both white and colored people, so they had to sell to either one or the other. This is similar to slave codes because in most states slaves were not allowed to purchase whiskey at all, unless they had permission from their owners. Slaves did not eat with their white owners. In the Jim Crow era whites and blacks could not eat together at all, and if there was some odd circumstance that whites and blacks did eat together then the white person was served first and there was usually something in between them. This relates to slave codes because
The details disclosed that the prosecution highlighted the names of the potential black judges and tinted every black potential juror’s name in a different color. There were four different duplicates of the record of all of the individuals summoned for the task in the case. Evert record had a key, which indicated that the highlighted names represented the blacks. Besides, there were no any blotches made for the white jurors on the lists. There were also many marks made on the black people’s names on the juror questionnaires, and there was no any other race that was
Based on the pronouncements of the court on May 17, 1954, everyone in the courtroom was shocked after it became clear that Marshall was right in his claim about the unconstitutionality of legal segregation in American public schools. Essentially, this court’s decision became a most important turning point in U.S. history because the desegregation case had been won by an African American attorney. Additionally, this became a landmark decision in the sense that it played a big role in the crumbling of the discriminatory laws against African Americans and people of color in major socioeconomic areas, such as employment, education, and housing (Stinson, 2008). Ultimately, Marshall’s legal achievements contributed significantly to the criminal justice field.
Despite the efforts of lawyers and judges to eliminate racial discrimination in the courts, does racial bias play a part in today’s jury selection? Positive steps have been taken in past court cases to ensure fair and unbiased juries. Unfortunately, a popular strategy among lawyers is to incorporate racial bias without directing attention to their actions. They are taught to look for the unseen and to notice the unnoticed. The Supreme Court in its precedent setting decision on the case of Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), is the first step to limiting racial discrimination in the court room. The process of selecting jurors begins with prospective jurors being brought into the courtroom, then separating them into smaller groups to be seated in the jury box. The judge and or attorneys ask questions with intent to determine if any juror is biased or cannot deal with the issues fairly. The question process is referred to as voir dire, a French word meaning, “to see to speak”. During voir dire, attorneys have the right to excuse a juror in peremptory challenges. Peremptory challenges are based on the potential juror admitting bias, acquaintanceship with one of the parties, personal knowledge of the facts, or the attorney believing he/she might not be impartial. In the case of Batson v. Kentucky, James Batson, a black man, was indicted for second-degree burglary and receipt of stolen goods. During the selection of the jury the prosecutor used his peremptory challenges to strike out all of the four black potential jurors, leaving an all white jury. Batson’s attorney moved to discharge the venire, the list from which jurors may be selected, on the grounds that the prosecutor’s peremptory challenges violated his client’s Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to have a jury derived from a “cross-section of the community”(People v. Wheeler, 583 P.3d 748 [Calif. 1978]). The circuit court ruled in favor of the prosecutor and convicted Batson on both counts. This case went through the courts and finalized in the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Strange Career of Jim Crow, by C. Van Woodward, traces the history of race relations in the United States from the mid and late nineteenth century through the twentieth century. In doing so Woodward brings to light significant aspects of Reconstruction that remain unknown to many today. He argues that the races were not as separate many people believe until the Jim Crow laws. To set up such an argument, Woodward first outlines the relationship between Southern and Northern whites, and African Americans during the nineteenth century. He then breaks down the details of the injustice brought about by the Jim Crow laws, and outlines the transformation in American society from discrimination to Civil Rights. Woodward’s argument is very persuasive because he uses specific evidence to support his opinions and to connect his ideas. Considering the time period in which the book and its editions were written, it should be praised for its insight into and analysis of the most important social issue in American history.
After his clients were found guilty of rape and sentenced to the death penalty for a third time, Sam Leibovitz noticed a disturbing trend in the courtroom. Out of the multitude of jurors used in each hearing, none of them were black. Every single one was a white southerner, and Leibovitz felt as though the jury was rigged in favor of the prosecution. This was exceedingly common in the South at this time, as many states excluded people of color from sitting on a jury. In Norris versus Alabama, Leibovitz voiced his concerns to the United States Supreme Court. This landmark case was unorthodox, as Leibovitz had the jury rolls from the cases brought up all the way from Alabama to be read by the justices. The preponderance of the names on the lists were those of whites, but there were a few names belonging to blacks at the bottom of some of the pages. These were all hastily scrawled, as if they were added recently. Leibovitz argued that they were written there merely to show that Alabama did not intentionally influence the jury against the boys, when they actually did. The Supreme Court voted for Leibovitz, and ruled that all people, no matter their skin color, should be able to vote on a jury. This verdict would be instrumental for later race-based proceedings in the future. During the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, many crucial cases were won because of empathetic, equal
Danny Thiemann Mrs. Fleetwood English I-C 13 April 2014 Separate but not equal Does the name Jim Crow ring a bell? Neither singer nor actor, but actually the name for the Separate but Equal (Jim Crow) Laws of the 1900s. Separate but Equal Laws stated that businesses and public places had to have separate, but equal, facilities for minorities and Caucasian people. Unfortunately, they usually have different levels of maintenance or quality.
Beginning in the 1890’s Jim Crow laws or also known as the color-line was put into effect in the Southern states. These laws restricted the rights of blacks and segregation from the white population. These laws were put into effect as partially a result of the reaction of the whites to blacks not submitting to segregation of railroads, streetcars, and other public facilities. African Americans Ids B. Wells, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B Dubois had differing opinions on the color-line. Wells and Dubois felt the color-line created prejudice toward blacks and that the black population could not become equal with the whites under such conditions. On the other hand, Booker T. Washington thought the laws were a good compromise between the parties at the time.
As a result, they were powerless to prevent the white from segregating all aspects of their lives and could not stop racial discrimination in public accommodations, education, and economic opportunities. Following the 1954 Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, it remained a hot issue in 1955. That year, however, it was the murder of the fourteen-year-old Emmett Louis Till that directed the nation’s attention to the racial discrimination in America. Till was an African American schoolboy in Chicago, and he went to visit his uncle in Mississippi. He reportedly “wolf whistled” at a white grocery store attendant, Mrs. Bryant, and was kidnapped by her husband and her husband’s half brother that following night.
The subject of racial issues and inequality has been something that has affected human history and has impacted the world around us. For hundreds of years, racial equality has been an immense problem. Today, racial equality and injustice is being fought in many different aspects. One crucial event in the fight for equality came during the O.J. Simpson murder case. The beating of African-American Rodney King due to the actions of a police officer added to racial turmoil leading up to the murder of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. The murder case went on to portray many examples of racial tension going on around the world, some of those examples were used against the prosecution throughout the trial. This worldwide story became the focal point
A study of race and jury trials in Florida published last year in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, found that “conviction rates for black and white defendants are similar when there is at least some representation of blacks in the jury pool.” But all-white juries are a very different story—they convict blacks 16% more often than they convict whites (2).
African Americans were treated poorly in the time of Emmett tills murder. Slavery was abolished at the time but the south was still mostly segregated. This was in the time of the civil rights movement.
The story of Emmett Till has moved the entire nation not because it was an attack on an individual but an entire community because this case was an important event to spark up the Civil Rights Movement. Even though, the African-American people continue to live with the fear of injustice, anger, frustration as well as racism measures have been made and some are still in the process. But, once a principle is set it is seldom possible to revert and as stated once by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”, it remains true.
Today juries are much more diverse. Men, women, and people from diverse backgrounds are called to jury duty. Although the origin of the jury system is not clear, history has shown that William the Conqueror from Normandy introduced a similar system to England around 1066 CE (Judiciary of Vermont 1). After the American Revolutionary War, the jury system became the American ideal of justice. This essay will explore the history of the American jury system and illustrate how it has evolved over the course of the American history.
Stevenson, Bryan A. Illegal Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection. Rep. Montgomery, Alabama: Equal Justice Initiative, 2010. Print.