Bruce Wright (1) (1917–2005)

I was briefly tempted to tag this "Horror", since that aptly describes the treatment of people of color and poor people in our criminal justice system.

Wright, an African American New York Supreme Court justice, has written a scathing indictment of that system. The book was written in 1987, but too much of what he describes still goes on. We are, in fact, probably more aware of it. We know that target="_top">racial profiling occurs, and has increased of late. We know that it the race of the victim is a major determinant in whether a convicted murderer will be sentenced to death. (Race and the Death Penalty) We know that minority defendants will receive harsher sentences than whites convicted of the same crimes. We know that the prosecutors, judges and policy makers are overwhelmingly white males.

It is difficult to fault Wright for his anger; unfortunately, at times it interferes with his argument. That is too bad, because what he has to say needs to be heard.… (más)