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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
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Created: June 22, 2003
Latest Update: October 26, 2006
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

CRMJ/SOCA 365: Race, Crime and Law
Week 9: Race and the Composition of Juries

You will be held accountable for purposes of grading for the readings and exercises listed here. There will be no "testing." That means that you will not have to live in anxious anticipation of what we will ask and how much you will have to know. Instead, we will provide weekly discussion questions, lectures, essays, and concepts we feel that you should know as a result of having taken this course. You will assure us of that learning and receive your grade for the questions and concepts about which you choose to write and talk with us. In addition, you will find detailed explanations and examples on our grading policies in the first week's reading.

* * * * *

Week 9: Week of October 29, 2006

• Topic: Race and the Composition of Juries

  Special Note:
  Friday, October 27th - The Last Day to Drop a Semester-long Class

  Thursday, November 30th at 11 a.m. central time - The Absolute Final Deadline for TR RCL class.
  Friday, December 1st at 11 a.m. central time - The Absolute Final Deadline for MWF RCL class.

• Preparatory Readings:
  --- Fellman. Rambo and the Dalai Lama. entirety
  --- Walker, et. al The Color of Justice. ch. --
  --- Kennedy. Race, Crime and the Law. ch. 7 and 8
  --- Documentary, "Without Due Process" (W in Moln 109) or "Time of Fear" (R in MolnD132) (to be shown in class)
  Students are welcome to visit the other class to view the other documentary.
  
  

• Links to Lecture Notes and Other Things
  

  NEW Pyramid Box Instructions

  Evaluating Authority
  Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. An excellent resource for juvenile justice related issues.
  National Criminal Justice Resource Service. Administered by the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
  
  

  Join the Yahoo Discussion Group . Discuss topics beyond the classroom and with students from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
  Gordon Fellman related materials on the Dear Habermas site.
  W.I. Thomas "Definition of the Situation
  
  Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers) on How We Teach and Why

Lecture: in class

Concepts:

• race dependent jury selection
• underrepresentation
• prosecutorial racial misconduct
• jury nullification
• Issei, Nisei, Sansei, Yonsei
• internment camps
• Executive Order 9066

Discussion Questions:

Incorporate the readings and the documentary, "Time of Fear" or "Without Due Process" in your answers.



1. "Balancing group bias on the jury is an invitation to jurors to abandon even the attempt to approach the evidence from a disinterested point of view." by Jeffrey Abramson, (Opening quotation in Chapter 7 of Kennedy's book). Why do you think Kennedy included this quote? What is your reaction to this quote? Why. What would Fellman's reaction be? Why.
2. According to Kennedy, there are three camps on how to deal with the issue of race and the composition of juries. Briefly describe each camp. Which camp do you belong to? Why.
3. What is meant by "playing the race card?" How would you describe Johnnie Cochran's strategy in the O.J. Simpson case? Why.
4. Based on the documentary, "Without Due Process" or "Time of Fear", why were over 110,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans interned? How does the documentary viewed in class relate to "race, crime, law"?
5. What would Fellman and Kennedy say about the lessons learned from the Japanese American internment during World War II? Why.

Ideas and Suggestions for Creative Measures

Note: Start thinking about ideas for your creative measures. Must relate to "race, crime, law." Must be approved before starting your creative measure. Cannot be something that you are doing or have done for another course. Research cannot be 100% online (i.e., google, askjeeves). Must conduct library research using scholarly works, (not the popular press -- Time Magazine, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated). No term papers! Allow time to dialogue and present your creative measure in class. Email me your idea. Before the absolute final deadline, you need to have completed your visual projects of your learning in this course. Think about how you might demonstrate your learning visually creative way.



• Make A Box a Week focusing on the week's topic or issues.
• Research the arguments for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
• Imagine this hypothetical situation: President Bush signs off on an executive order calling for the internment of all college students. You have less than two weeks to report to the assembly center for evacuation. You can only take what you can carry? What would you pack? Why. How would this evacuation change your life? Why.
• Examine playing the "race card". What does it mean? Is it fair or not? Why.
  
  
• Study the issue of racial minorities and jury selection. What are some of the major issues and challenges? Why.

Recommended Readings:

• Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. Farewell to Manzanar.
• Michi Weglyn. Years of Infamy.
• Roger Daniel. Politics of Prejudice.
• Ronald Takaki. Iron Cages..
• Lawson Fusao Inada. Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience.
• Greg Robinson. By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans.
• H. Kim. A Legal History of Asian Americans, 1790-1990 .
  
  
• Other books on juries and the court process:
  -- Seymour Wishman. Anatomy of a Jury: The System on Trial.
  -- David Cole. No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System.
  -- Bryan Edelman. Racial Prejudice, Juror Empathy and Sentencing.
  -- Marvin Free, Jr. Racial Issues in Criminal Justice.
  -- Rev. Jesse Jackson. Legal Lynching.
  -- Paula DiPerna. Juries on Trial.
  -- Alan Desrhowitz. The Best Defense.
  -- Steve Bogira. Courtroom 302: A Year Behind the Scenes in an American Courthouse.
  -- Deborah L. Rhode. Access to Justice.
  -- Mark Weiner. Black Trials.
  --- Dan T. Carter. Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South.
  --- Anthony Lewis. Gideon's Trumpet.
  --- Harriet Ziskin. The Blind Eagle.
  --- Jonathan Casper. Criminal Courts: The Defendant's Perspective.
  --- Samuel Walker. Taming the System: The Control of Discretion in the Criminal Justice System.
  --- Kenneth Culp Davis. Discretionary Justice.
  --- James P. Levine. Juries and Politics.
  
  
• The Dalai Lama. Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama.
• The Dalai Lama. The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality.
• The Dalai Lama. Ethics for the New Millennium.
• The Dalai Lama. An Open Heart.
• The Dalai Lama. Live in a Better Way.
  
  
  
• The 9-11 Commission Report
• Alfie Kohn. No Contest. The Case Against Competition.
• Thomas Kuhn. Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

• Paulo Freire. Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
• Jurgen Habermas. Between Facts and Norms.
  
• Martha Minow. Making All the Difference: Exclusion, Inclusion and American Law. Check out this link Martha Minow on the Dear Habermas site.

Course Syllabus for CRMJ/SOCA 365-001 (MWF) "Race, Crime, Law"

Course Syllabus for CRMJ/SOCA 365-002 (TR) "Race, Crime, Law"