"Dark Underbelly of the American Criminal Justice System"
CNN, Anderson Cooper 360, July 15, 2013
Mark Geragos was asked by Jeffrey Toobin how he knew from the beginning when the jury was selected what the verdict would be.
Mark Geragos: "Race. Race is still the biggest issue in the criminal justice system in America. I see it every single day. You see it in every single trial. It explains 95% of what goes on in every courtroom in America and jury selection is the sine qua non of the racial institution. Why do you think that they reverse cases--the U.S. Supreme Court instituted Batson, why do you think that they reseat jurors, why do you think that they say that it's unfair when an all white jury judges a black defendant. Why do you think that if a prosecutor eliminates blacks so that you get an all white jury people say that is a pretextual thing. That is reality."
Sunny Hostin says she didn't think the case was about race but listening to juror #B37 and also some of the hate mail Sunny received, said she now believes that race is a significant part of this.
Geragos replied that he'd seen some of the hateful tweets directed at Sunny and "I can tell you this is not a news flash to anybody who's in the trenches in the criminal courtroom. This is the dark underbelly of the American criminal justice system and it's unfortunate but you know maybe this discussion that we're having is going to bring it out so that people understand that this is what goes on. There's no way that you can understand this verdict if you don't take it through the prism of how people look at race."
I transcribed this myself.
ETA: Geragos takes on the prosecution in this excellent piece: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/15/michael-jackson-lawyer-mark-geragos-on-race-and-trayvon-martin.html "It’s one simple word: race. Prosecutors, used to demonizing young black males as violent predators of the night, weren’t ready to fight for Trayvon Martin."
Mark Geragos was asked by Jeffrey Toobin how he knew from the beginning when the jury was selected what the verdict would be.
Mark Geragos: "Race. Race is still the biggest issue in the criminal justice system in America. I see it every single day. You see it in every single trial. It explains 95% of what goes on in every courtroom in America and jury selection is the sine qua non of the racial institution. Why do you think that they reverse cases--the U.S. Supreme Court instituted Batson, why do you think that they reseat jurors, why do you think that they say that it's unfair when an all white jury judges a black defendant. Why do you think that if a prosecutor eliminates blacks so that you get an all white jury people say that is a pretextual thing. That is reality."
Sunny Hostin says she didn't think the case was about race but listening to juror #B37 and also some of the hate mail Sunny received, said she now believes that race is a significant part of this.
Geragos replied that he'd seen some of the hateful tweets directed at Sunny and "I can tell you this is not a news flash to anybody who's in the trenches in the criminal courtroom. This is the dark underbelly of the American criminal justice system and it's unfortunate but you know maybe this discussion that we're having is going to bring it out so that people understand that this is what goes on. There's no way that you can understand this verdict if you don't take it through the prism of how people look at race."
I transcribed this myself.
ETA: Geragos takes on the prosecution in this excellent piece: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/15/michael-jackson-lawyer-mark-geragos-on-race-and-trayvon-martin.html "It’s one simple word: race. Prosecutors, used to demonizing young black males as violent predators of the night, weren’t ready to fight for Trayvon Martin."