Racial Character Evidence in Police Killing Cases

72 Pages Posted: 25 May 2018 Last revised: 20 Jun 2018

Date Written: May 22, 2018

Abstract

The United States is facing a twofold crisis: police killings of people of color and unaccountability for these killings in the criminal justice system. In many instances, the officers’ use of deadly force is captured on video and often appears clearly unjustified, but grand and petit juries still fail to indict and convict, leaving many baffled. This Article provides an explanation for these failures: juror reliance on “racial character evidence.” Too often, jurors consider race as evidence in criminal trials, particularly in police killing cases where the victim was a person of color. Instead of focusing on admissible evidence, jurors rely on race to determine the defendant’s innocence, the victim’s propensity for violence, and the witnesses’ credibility. This Article delineates the ways in which juror racial bias is utilized to take on evidentiary value at trial and constructs evidence law solutions to increase racial equality in the courtroom.

Keywords: Evidence law, evidence, federal rules of evidence, criminal justice, racial justice, race, relevance, prejudice, police killings, deadly force, equal protection, victims' rights, character evidence, no-impeachment rules, Sixth Amendment, critical race theory

Suggested Citation

Gonzales Rose, Jasmine B., Racial Character Evidence in Police Killing Cases (May 22, 2018). Wisconsin Law Review, Vol. 2018, No. 3, p. 369, U. of Pittsburgh Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2018-17, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3183408

Jasmine B. Gonzales Rose (Contact Author)

Boston University School of Law ( email )

765 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
189
Abstract Views
1,247
Rank
289,210
PlumX Metrics