Loophole in the Legal System - Essay Example

a) Numerous high-profile trials have been witnessed in which controversial verdicts were attributed to race - the race of the defendant, the racialcomposition of a jury, an attorney "playing the race card," etc. a predominantly Black jury's acquittal of O.J. Simpson and White jurors' leniency in the police brutality cases of Rodney King and Amadou Diallo sparked public debate and even violence. In the wake of theses trials, many have questioned the viability of the United States' jury system (Kapardis, 1997; Reynolds, 1996).

More specific questions regarding the influence of race on jury decision-making have also emerged from this spate of well-publicised cases: How does a defendant's race influence juror's perception and judgement How does the racial composition of a jury affect its deliberations and final decision Is the influence of race on jurors the same in all trails What difference, if any, would it make if more of the lawyers representing criminal defendants were racial minorities Studies show that Justices of the courts who served from 1789-1962 were socially atypical of the average American background: they came from upper-class families, attended the best law schools, were white male and generally protestant (Abraham, 1962; Ulmer, 1973).

This unrepresentative nature of the courts can challenge the legitimacy of an institution. A judicial system of white men can be seen as producing only white man's justice. Another reason one can posit for the desirability of minorities in the judiciary is assimilation. America's heterogeneous population is clustered in groups that thrive along racial, religious, and national-background harmonization (Gordon, 1964). With the Hispanic population growing at a rapid rate, with blacks, Native American Indians, Asians, Jews, and White Anglo-Saxons, America, as a nation, faces the problem of how these groups can exist alongside one another.

The United States is a pluralistic society. It is composed of people with different ethnic, national, racial and religious backgrounds. How well these groups function alongside one another, and how well the institutions of government function depends largely on the degree to which these different people perceive themselves as being part of the whole. Having minorities in the judiciary will foster group cohesiveness through assimilation and symbolization, and increase the legitimacy of policy institutions.

The importance of substantive representation in the judiciary is sentencing behaviour. Welch, et al (1988) found that having more black judges increases equality of treatment for blacks. Black judges were found to be more even-handed in their treatment of black and white decedents than were judges, who tended to treat white defendants somewhat more leniently (. 126). Thus, it is evident that racial elements do impact the decision-making and sentencing in the US Courts. With the increasing black population, it is imperative that the courts should have proportionate representation of black lawyers and judges in order to balance the chances of equity and eliminating any likely chances of giving partial and biased judgment. b) It is true that the Supreme Court confirms the fact that a jury should be composed of a cross section of the community, there is no such restrictions of the selection of individual jurors.

Resultantly, it has created a lope hole where the respective attorneys take advantage of their peremptory challenges to discard potential jurors using racially motivated reasoning. The result of this practice can lead the minorities to face an all white jury and void of peer representation. This loophole in the legal system has invoked a debate widely commented and the legal scholars favour the elimination of the peremptory challenge as a tool to preserve an all white jury where the minority defendant cases involve.

Considering the nature of this issue, it is expected that the issue of peremptory challenges will continue to be debated hotly over the next coming few years. The legal scholars as well as the people taking interest in legal reformations have favoured both sides of the arguments. In fact, the use of the challenge is not the issue of racial discrimination in its true spirit. The problem arises only when this challenge is used to eliminate an entire segment of the jury based on race. We may quote the instances of the Scottsboro and Geter cases which urge us to eliminate the peremptory challenges in order to comprise a jury based on race.

The underlying problem of the challenges can be seen in the selection of a jury of hand selected sympathizers instead of selecting intelligent open-minded citizens who may come to a well reasoned conclusion. The hand selected sympathizers tend to vote their own way. As the defenders of the peremptory challenges argue, the challenges help in achieving a fair and impartial jury, thus eliminating predisposed jurors who are likely to vote against their clients based on their personal bias and prejudice.

The supporters of the challenges assume that both sides will have equal size of potential jurors who may use their challenges and thus eliminate any real or imagined bias and prejudices (Walker et al., p.190) However, this argument does not seem to be based on reality or the instances come out to the public notice. As argued previously, such jurors fail to balance their stances and are more prone to give verdict based on their racial discrimination. That is why there is a strong need of judicial reformation and setting up legal system free from race discrimination.

ReferencesAbraham, Henry. (1962). The Judicial Process. New York Oxford University Press. Gordon, Milton, M. (1964). Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion and National Origins. New York: Oxford University Press. Kapardis, A. (1977). Psychology and law: A critical introduction. Cambridge. UK: Cambridge University Press.Reynolds, G.A. (Ed,) (1996). Race and the Criminal justice system: How race affects jury trails. Washington, DC: Center for Equal Opportunity. Ulmer, Sidney, S. (1986). Are Social Background Models Time-Bound" American Political Science Review.

80: 957-967. Walker, S., Spohn, C., & DeLone, M. (2004). The color of justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in America (3rd Ed.). United States: Thomson.Welch, S., and A.K.Karnig. (1980). Black Representation and Urban Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.