Cases and Materials on Combatting Racism in Criminal Procedure

CASES AND MATERIALS ON COMBATTING RACISM IN CRIMINAL PROCEDURE addresses the emerging national concern over the unwanted, but often ignored, role of race in American criminal justice. Legal scholars have long noted that race plays a role in how our criminal process works. However, no previous casebook has systematically traced the role that race has played at each major stage of the criminal process, while noting analytical and practical strategies that have been used to minimize race's influence. The purpose of this work is not simply to acknowledge and accept the presence of race in our criminal courts, but to actually provide tools - both conceptual and practical - for counteracting its influence. The timing for addressing this hole in legal education is now. The recent attention that has been drawn to racially disproportionate mass incarceration, wrongful convictions, and violent interactions with law enforcement, make it imperative that our legal educational system produce persons trained in the law to bring about positive, transformative change. On July 14, 2015 President Barack Obama, in a historic and unique statement for a United States President, declared that the American criminal justice system is particularly skewed by race and wealth. Across the country there is a growing realization that racial injustice in the criminal process cannot continue.