Justice may be blind, but the legal system sees colors - 12.5.2007.1

*This can also be found at Black & White Blog, where I am a co-author.*

I was recently talking to a friend and they mentioned how things are so much better for African Americans these days. They believed that the legal system is fairer now than ever before. I laughed.

There is no question that African Americans have long felt that the legal system in America is a failure when it comes to any person of color. We have long complained of higher conviction rates, less access to bails, and harsher penalties once convicted. That says nothing of the stigma attached to those paroled, falsely accused, or who win the judicial action.

There is the examples from the past of numerous lynchings, the eradication of Rosewood, and Jim Crow laws including segregation as recent as the mid- to late-70’s. But on more recent notes there are the examples of Rodney King, Sean Bell, OJ Simpson, Genarlow Wilson, and the Jena 6. To that recent list can be added Allen Snyder.

Who is Allen Snyder? A black man who was convicted in Louisiana for the murder of a man and the stabbing of his wife. Sounds similar to another case? Well this trial was initially in 1996 and the prosecutor removed all African Americans from the jury, and then made correlations to the OJ Simpson case. The all-White jury agreed on guilt and the death sentence.

“Williams made repeated public references to the Snyder case as his "O.J. Simpson case." In his final remarks before jurors, Williams said the case reminded him of Simpson's, although he didn't use Simpson's name.
"The perpetrator in that case got away with it," Williams said, after the trial judge overruled a defense objection.”

Now the Supreme Court is looking over the case. Of course this is after the fact that back in 1986 and 2005 the issue of racial bias in juries was addressed.

"The use of race- and gender-based stereotypes in the jury-selection process seems better organized and more systemized than ever before," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in a 2005 case. Breyer said that despite a 1986 decision, Batson v. Kentucky, barring prosecutors from striking someone because of race, studies suggest discrimination "remains a problem."

My point?

Simple. There is more than just an imbalance in the legal system. It’s an absolute fact that it’s prejudiced. But the media plays short shrift to this, and the general White populace believes that everything is fair. At least that’s how I have experienced it.

Continued in part 2...