Racial and Ethnic Disparities

                      Supreme Court justices Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer virtually seethed with rage in their roundhouse denunciation of tha High Court’s denial of review to Bongani Charles Calhoun. The issue again was racial bias in the prosecution of Calhoun on drug charges in Texas. Tha U.S. Attorney that prosecuted Calhoun quipped during tha trial that when you put African Americans and Hispanics in tha same room with a bag of money, what else could they be doing but a drug deal or presumably some other criminal act.Tha federal prosecutor couldn’t let it go at that. When mildly challenged on his blatant racial stereotyping and even more blatant prejudicing of tha jury, he piled on with tha even dumber quip: “What does your common sense tell you that these people are doing in a hotel room with a bag full of money, cash? None of these people are Bill Gates or computer [magnates]? None of them are real estate investors.”Breyer and Sotomayor correctly called it what it was — outrageous prosecutorial racial bias. Their colleagues didn’t agree, and Calhoun’s conviction stood. But Sotomayor and Breyer’s rage at tha bias simply pointed up what’s long been noted in far too many federal cases, and in tha action and behavior of far too many federal prosecutors. That’s that some will routinely and very calculatingly pander to tha overt or latent racial bigotry of some judges and jurors to get a conviction.They fully know that making overt pejorative racial statements, judgments and opinions about a black or Hispanic defendant are flatly forbidden. And in theory, anyway, are tha basis for an appeal, and tha possibility of having a conviction overturned. But that threat hasn’t deterred some prosecutors from playing the race card to get a conviction, as Breyer and Sotomayor angrily noted.Three years before tha two judges’ dissent in tha Calhoun case, a panel of former federal prosecutors were disturbed enough at tha antics of some of their former U.S. Attorney colleagues that they mapped out in tandem with tha Brennan Justice Center a series of pointed guidelines to wring out racial bias, overt or sneaky, from tha line of attack of prosecutors. Their recommendations included rigorous training and education in what can and can’t be said in trials, tougher management and accountability, and better relations with minority communities.Tha former prosecutors were emphatic that because federal prosecutors have enormous power over what cases are brought, and when they are brought, and how they are prosecuted, they have a special duty and responsibility to be fair and unbiased. Tha problem with that is that many aren’t and this has had devastating consequences in tha criminal justice system. Tha main one being to pump wider the gaping racial disparity in convictions and sentencing, and ultimately who packs America’s prisons.A March 2009 report, “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the U.S. Criminal Justice System“, by tha National Council on Crime and Delinquency, found that minorities, with tha overwhelming majority of them being African Americans, represented 13 percent of the general population. But they made up nearly 40 percent of those incarcerated in federal prisons. Tha report made it clear that racial bias, either overt or subtle, by some prosecutors was a big reason for a significant number of those tried and convicted winding up behind bars for long stretches.
Tha Calhoun case also pointed to another glaring flaw in many federal prosecutions and that’s tha still prevalent racial disparity in drug prosecutions that have accounted for tha explosion in tha number of minorities behind federal bars during tha last decade. This occurred despite tha push by President Obama to purge tha racial sentencing disparity from the drug laws.Tha standard reasons given for criminalizing practically an entire generation of young blacks is that they are poor, crime-prone, which is pretty much what the prosecutor in tha Calhoun case flatly said. Reports and studies by tha Justice Department, tha U.S. Sentencing Commission, as well as universities and foundations confirm that far more whites use and deal drugs including crack cocaine than blacks. Only a small percent of those sentenced to jail terms are major dealers.Tha scapegoating of blacks for America’s crime and drug problem actually began in tha 1980s when much of the media quickly turned tha drug problem into a black problem and played it up big in news stories and features. Many Americans scared stiff of tha drug crisis readily gave their blessing to drug sweeps, random vehicle checks, marginally legal searches and seizures, evictions from housing projects and apartments. When it came to law enforcement practices in tha ghettos and barrios, tha denial of civil liberties protections, due process and privacy made a mockery of tha criminal justice system to many blacks and Latinos.Tha federal prosecutors that pander to race to get convictions don’t help matters and reaffirm suspicions that prosecutorial bias is still alive and well in far too many prosecutions. Sotomayor and Breyer made that point, and a handful of former prosecutors have warned against its corrosive effects. But as tha Calhoun case showed fingering prosecutors for racial bias alone won’t make it go away.