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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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