Resource Guide to Diversity: Criminal Procedure

No Equal Justice is the seminal work on race- and class-based double standards in criminal justice. Hailed as a "shocking and necessary book" by The Economist, it has become the standard reference point for anyone trying to understand the fundamental inequalities in the American legal system. The book, written by constitutional law scholar and civil liberties advocate David Cole, was named the best nonfiction book of 1999 by the Boston Book Review and the best book on an issue of national policy by the American Political Science Association. No Equal Justice examines subjects ranging from police behavior and jury selection to sentencing, and argues that our system does not merely fail to live up to the promise of equality, but actively requires double standards to operate. Such disparities, Cole argues, allow the privileged to enjoy constitutional protections from police power without paying the costs associated with extending those protections across the board to minorities and the poor.

Wu examines the independent effect of citizenship status and its joint effect with race/ethnicity, national origin, and geographic locations on sentencing outcomes. He studies the between-group relationship in terms of citizenship status and conflict theory as well as the within-group relationship in terms of race/ethnicity and typification theory. Findings reveal mixed support for theoretical propositions and research hypotheses, with stronger support for conflict theory than for typification theory. The double-disadvantage hypothesis is not supported. The findings regarding federal judgesOCO harshness in the incarceration decision while showing leniency in the probation length and prison sentence length decisions for non-citizen offenders reflect a balance between focal concerns and the enhanced social control of conflict theory.

Discusses race-conscious jury selection and highlights strategies for achieving racially mixed juries. Race in the Jury Box focuses on the racially unrepresentative jury as one of the remaining barriers to racial equality and a recurring source of controversy in American life. Because members of minority groups remain underrepresented on juries, various communities have tried race-conscious jury selection, termed affirmative jury selection." The authors argue that affirmative jury selection can insure fairness, verdict legitimization, and public confidence in the justice system. This book offers a critical analysis and systematic examination of possible applications of race-based jury selection. examining the public perception of these measures and their constitutionality. The authors make use of court cases, their own experiences as jury consultants, and jury research, as well as statistical survey and analysis. The work concludes with the presentation of four strategies for affirmative jury selection.