The Role of Discretion
How does broad discretion by law enforcement officers and prosecutors contribute to discrimination in the justice system?
It gives authority to police to stop, interrogate, and search anyone, if they get “consent.” It also allows prosecutors to be discriminatory when deciding what to charge, who to charge, and who to offer plea bargains to.
What is the mandatory minimum sentence for someone found with 500 grams (which is over a pound) of powder cocaine?
5 years mandatory, 5 grams of crack triggers the same sentence.
Where are drug raids and drug enforcement operations often focused?
Typically in ghettos and in black/brown communities
What are some seemingly race-neutral factors that operate in highly discriminatory fashions in the context of policing drugs?
- Location
- Prior criminal history
Can you think of any others Alexander doesn't explicitly mention?
What is the two strikes and you’re out sentencing scheme?
It imposes life imprisonment for a second drug offense.
During the war on drugs, how did the media contribute to discrimination?
In the 1980s, cocaine related use within the media focused on white users snorting the powder form. It also portrayed white users as going to rehab and working towards recovery. It portrayed POC on the other hand as economically poor and dealers of crack cocaine.
What is required for a defendant to state a claim of selective prosecution?
Must offer in advance evidence of selective prosecution which can generally only be obtained through discovery of the prosecutors' files.
What is the name of the book, by Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton, that documents how racially segregated ghettos were deliberately created by federal policy, not impersonal market forces or private housing choices?
American Apartheid
What was the holding of United States v. Brignoni-Ponce?
The Supreme Court concluded that it was permissible under the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment for police to use race as a factor in making decisions about which motorists to stop and search
There the Court concluded that police could take a person’s Mexican appearance into account when developing reasonable suspicion that a vehicle may contain undocumented immigrants
Why is racial bias the most acute at the point of entry into the system?
Discretion and authorization.
What happened in Mcklesky v. Kemp?
Warren Mcklesky was a black man who was convicted of killing a white police officer during an armed robbery in Georgia. He was facing the death penalty. He challenged his sentence on the grounds that Georgia’s death penalty was racially bias and therefore violated the Fourteenth and Eighth Amendments.
Why is achieving an all-white jury, or nearly an all-white jury so easy in most jurisdictions?
Few racial minorities are included in the jury pool.
What was the basis for City of Los Angeles v. Lyons?
Adolph Lyons sued the LAPD, attempting to ban the use of lethal chokeholds by the LAPD.
Lyons endured permanent damage from a police officer following a traffic stop for a burnt-out tail light.
What did Operation Pipeline project show?
Operation Pipeline was a federally funded program of the DEA that compiled data demonstrating the dramatic pattern of racial bias in highway patrol stops and searches
Researchers at the University of Washington conducted a study in 2002 that found what?
The high arrest rates of POC for drug offense was not explained by rates of offended nor other excuses such as ease and efficiency of policing open-air drug markets, citizen complaints, crime rates, or drug-related violence. It also debunked that white dealers deal indoors and therefore are more discrete. It was false stereotypes relating to crack markets, crack dealers, and crack babies, that resulted in racially bias discretionary decisions by the Seattle police department.
What was the name of the study that Mcklesky produced and what did it entail?
The Baldus study. It found that defendants charged with killing white victims were eleven times more likely to receive a death sentence than defendants who were charged with killing POC. Georgia Prosecutors were to blame, as they sought the death penalty in 70% of cases where a black defendant was charged with killing a white victim. However, they only sought the death penalty in 19% of cases where black defendants were charged with killing black victims.
Are similarly situated white defendants more successful than African Americans and Latinos in the plea bargaining process?
Yes!
What was the court’s ruling in City of Los Angeles v. Lyons?
In order to have standing, Lyons would have had to allege that he would have anther encounter with the police AND assert that either (1) that all police officers in LA always choke citizens with whom they have an encounter (whether for the purpose of making an arrest, issuing a citation, or for questioning), or (2) that the City ordered or authorized the police to act in such a manner
What does Alexander (quoting a former New Jersey Attorney General) mean when she references the “circular illogic of racial profiling”?
Law enforcement officials often point to the racial composition of our prisons and jails as justification for targeting racial minorities, but the empirical evidence suggests the opposite is warranted
The disproportionate imprisonment of POC was a product of racial profiling, not a justification for it
What happened in Yick Wo v. Hopkins?
Two defendants who were of Chinese descent were operating laundries without permits. They, along with 200 other laundry operators of Chinese descent were denied permits based on race. They were fined and imprisoned.
What was the holding in Mcklesky v. Kemp?
Racial bias in sentencing could not be challenged under the Fourteenth Amendment absent clear evidence of conscious, discriminatory intent.
What did the Supreme Court Hold in Purkett v. Elm?
When a pattern of race-based strikes has been identified by the defense the prosecutor need not provide an explanation that is persuasive.
What is required to establish an equal protection violation?
One must prove intentional discrimination– conscious racial bias
What was the impact of Alexander v. Sandoval?
Title VI does not provide a “private right of action” to ordinary citizens and civil rights organizations
Victims of discrimination can no longer sue under the law
How often are black drivers stopped compared to white drivers?
20% more likely. They also were found to be searched 1.5 to 2 times more often but were found to be carrying illegal contraband less often.