» Entries tagged with "racial"
Solving Nothing
The Arizona Republic recently reported about a Chandler police sergeant who was demoted and agreed to leave the department by the end of next year for ordering her subordinates to single out Native American shoplifters for being booked into jail instead of cited and released. She wasn’t fired, obviously, and it seems she will still be able to enjoy her pension. That’ll teach other officers not to do stuff like that in the future! Kidding aside, the article explains the sergeant’s patrol district borders the Gila River Indian Community and has a chronic shoplifting problem. This passage in the article forecasts what’s sure to be the Chandler Police Department’s new response to the problem: No one would have objected if Freeman had ordered all shoplifting suspects booked as a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Police
Juror Questions
Every once in a while I come across a ruling that’s so unfair I can hardly believe what I’m reading. State v. Detrich, a 1997 Arizona Supreme Court case, contains one of those rulings. The defendant argued that the trial court erred in refusing to use his proposed jury questionnaire, which included questions about jurors’ racial attitudes, biases, and prejudices. The Court ruled against the defendant because he did not show that the trial judge’s failure to submit his questionnaire to the jury “resulted in a biased jury or rendered his trial fundamentally unfair.” The Court claimed the defendant offered no evidence of bias or prejudice of the jurors. Although the defendant argued there was no way of knowing whether they might have had some kind of racial animus … Read entire article »
Filed under: Arizona Cases
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