Abstract
I’ve listened to many public defenders talk about why they represent poor people charged with crimes. Some of them talk about being inspired by the experience of a brother, cousin, or friend who was arrested and treated unfairly in the criminal justice system. Others speak of a desire to protect the constitutional rights of individuals and fight the power of government. Still others are motivated by a desire to help the poor and disadvantaged.
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Notes
The following reports prepared by The Sentencing Project are just a few of the many articles that discuss the issues black men face in our criminal justice system: Tushar Kansal, Racial Disparity in Sentencing: A Review of the Literature (The Sentencing Project, January 2005), http://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/sp/disparity.pdf;
Mark Mauer, The Crisis of the Young African American Male and the Criminal Justice System, (The Sentencing Project, April 15–16, 1999), http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_crisisoftheyoung.pdf;
Mark Mauer and Tracy Huling, Young Black Americans and the Criminal Justice System: Five Years Later (The Sentencing Project, October 1995), http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_youngblack_5yrslater.pdf.
Angela J. Davis, Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 123–141;
Angela J. Davis, Racial Fairness in the Criminal Justice System: The Role of the Prosecutor, Columbia Human Rights Law Review 39 (2007);
Angela J. Davis, “Prosecution and Race: The Power and Privilege of Discretion,” Fordham Law Review 67 (1998);
Bruce A. Green, “Why Should Prosecutors ‘Seek Justice’?,” Fordham Urban Law Journal 26 (1999);
James Vorenburg, “Decent Restraint of Prosecutorial Power,” Harvard Law Review 94 (1981).
I disagreed then and still disagree with the view of Abbe Smith and Paul Butler that “good people can’t be prosecutors.” See Paul Butler, Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice (New York: New Press, 2009), 101–121;
Abbe Smith, “Can You Be a Good Person and a Good Prosecutor?,” Georgetown Law Journal 14 (2001);
Kenneth B. Nunn, “The ‘Darden Dilemma’: Should African-Americans Prosecute Crimes?,” Fordham Law Review 68 (2000);
cf. Lenese C. Herbert, “Et in Arcadia Ego: A Perspective on Black Prosecutors’ Loyalty within the American Criminal Justice System,” Howard Law Journal 49 (2006);
Roscoe C. Howard, Jr., “Changing the System from Within: An Essay Calling on More African-Americans to Consider Being Prosecutors,” Widener Law Symposium Journal 6 (Fall 2000).
Thomas H. Cohen and Tracey Kyckelhahn, Felony Defendants in Large Urban Counties, 2006 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2010), 10, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/fdluc06.pdf.
D.C. Rules of Prof’l Conduct R. 3.8 (“Special Responsibilities of a Prosecutor”) (2012). For examples ofthe types ofprosecutorial misconduct that result in discipline, see Davis, Arbitrary Justice, 123–141; Neil Gordon, “Misconduct and Punishment,” The Center for Public Integrity, last modified June 26, 2003, http://www.iwatchnews.org/2003/06/26/5532 /misconduct-and-punishment;
Duff Wilson, “Prosecutor in Duke Case Disbarred by Ethics Panel,” New York Times, June 17, 2007, http:// www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/us/17duke.html#;
Ken Armstrong and Maurice Possley, “Part 1: The Verdict: Dishonor,” Chicago Tribune January 11, 1999, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/chi-020103trial1,0,1561461,full.story; People v. Mackell, 47 A.D.2d 209 (N.Y. App. Div. 1975), aff’d, 351 N.E.2d 684 (N.Y. 1976) (discussing prosecutorial misconduct that resulted in criminal prosecution); United States v. Pacheco-Ortiz, 889 F.2d 301, 310–11 (1st Cir. 1989) (describing nonjudicial sanctions for prosecutorial misconduct); Price v. State Bar of Cal., 638 P.2d 1311 (Cal. 1982) (suspending a prosecutor from practicing law for five years when he promised to seek a favorable sentence for a defendant if the defendant agreed not to appeal his conviction); In re G. Paul Howes, 39 A.2d 1 (D.C. 2012) (disbarring a prosecutor who wrongfully distributed witness vouchers, failed to disclose the payments to the court or opposing counsel, and intentionally made misrepresentations to the court that the disclosures had been made).
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© 2013 Abbe Smith and Monroe H. Freedman
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Davis, A.J. (2013). There but for the Grace of God Go I. In: Smith, A., Freedman, M.H. (eds) How Can You Represent Those People?. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137311955_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137311955_4
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