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45 Am. J. Crim. L. 203 (2018-2019)
Where Bias Lives in the Criminal Law and Its Processes: How Judges and Jurors Socially Construct Black Criminals

handle is hein.journals/ajcl45 and id is 207 raw text is: 



Article


WHERE BIAS LIVES IN THE CRIMINAL LAW
AND ITS PROCESSES:
HOW         JUDGES AND JURORS SOCIALLY
CONSTRUCT BLACK CRIMINALS

Jody Armoury

I.  Introduction ......................................................................................... 204
II. Denials of Racially Biased Constructions of Black Criminals: Why
    Paradigms Matter ................................................................................ 205
    A.  Evidence of Biased Constructions of Black Criminals in Character-
        Based Approaches  to Mens Rea  ................................................... 206
    B.  Concrete Illustration ..................................................................... 208
III. Prevailing Mens Rea Paradigm Ignores Room  for Biased Social
    Construction of Black Criminals ........................................................ 218
IV. The Prevailing Paradigm Limits Room  for Biased Social Construction
    to Defenses and Excuses .............................................................. 221
V.  Anomalies  that Eat the Paradigm........................................................ 224
    A.  The Negligence Anomaly   ............................................................. 225
    B.  The Recklessness Anomaly  .......................................................... 229
VI. How  Racial Bias Infects Factual or Descriptive Tests of Mens Rea
    through Interpretive Construction.................................................... 232
    A.  Interpretive Construction and Intent ............................................. 232
    B.  Interpretive Construction and Awareness..................................... 235
    C.  Interpretive Construction and Premeditation................................ 242
VII. Prejudice about Black Character and Mens Rea ............................... 243
VIII. How Mens  Rea  Bias Can Prevent Detection of Bias by Sentencing
    Studies ................................................................................................. 251










    Jody  David Armour is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at the University of Southern
California. Armour's expertise ranges from personal injury claims to claims about the relationship
between racial justice, criminal justice, and the rule of law. Armour studies the intersection of race and
legal decision making as well as torts and tort reform movements. Armour earned his AB degree in
Sociology at Harvard University and his JD degree with honors from Boalt Hall Law School at UC
Berkeley. Prior to joining USC, he was an associate at Morrison & Foerster, Kirkpatrick and Lockhart
and taught at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall, Indiana University and the University of Pittsburgh. This article
is dedicated to the memory of my dad, Fred Armour, who found the key to his jailhouse door in the law
books of the Warden's own library. See generally Armour v. Salisbury, 492 F.2d 1032 (6th Cir. 1974).


203

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