Legal Commentary

The Criminal Justice Moment of the South Carolina Debate

By Jeralyn

There was only one reference to criminal justice issues in the South Carolina debate. It had Obama and Hillary in agreement. John Edwards didn't weigh in on it, but he would agree as well.

From the transcript: [More....]

The one thing we -- when I say we should not focus on my race or Hillary's gender in terms of choosing a candidate, that is not to say that we should be ignoring the very real problems that still exist in terms of race in America. (APPLAUSE)

So for example, if we know that in our criminal justice system, African-Americans and whites, for the same crime, receive -- are arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different rates, receive very different sentences. (APPLAUSE)

That is something that we have to talk about. But that's a substantive issue and it has to do with how do we pursue racial justice.

If I am president, I will have a civil rights division that is working with local law enforcement so that they are enforcing laws fairly and justly. But I would expect... (APPLAUSE)

... a white president or a woman president should want to do the same thing, because I believe that the pursuit of racial equality, of the perfection of this union, is not just a particular special interest issue of the African-American community. That is how all of us are going to move forward.

And to the extent that we don't deal with those issues, those longstanding, deep seeded issues, we will continue to be hampered. We will be competing with the world with one hand tied behind our backs.

CLINTON: And, you know, Wolf, the... (APPLAUSE) .. the challenge is for us to address all of these issues. [Discusses gender issues].... we not only are running for office, but we each, in our own way, have lived it.

We have seen it. We have understood the pain and the injustice that has come because of race, because of gender. And it's imperative that, as we move forward with our campaign, we make it very clear that each of us will address these issues.

You don't hear the Republicans talking about any of this. You don't hear them talking about the disgrace of a criminal justice system that incarcerates so many more African-Americans proportionately than whites. ...... So we have a specific set of policies and priorities that are really part of who we are, as well as part of what the Democratic Party stands for.

Hillary didn't say how she'd fix the problem, but I don't much care for Obama's solution, which again was:

If I am president, I will have a civil rights division that is working with local law enforcement so that they are enforcing laws fairly and justly.

The civil rights division is part of the Department of Justice, a prosecutorial agency. He'd have prosecutors working with cops.

That's not what we need. We need Congress to change the laws that have a disparate racial effect. Specifically, mandatory minimum sentences.

DOJ, civil or criminal can't do that, only Congress can, and it sure would help if we had a President who would urge Congress to do so.

Afterhought: Just a reminder that the discussion about Obama's "present" votes on sex abuse victims' privacy rights was not about a crime bill but a civil law respecting sealing of records. His website explains (HB 854). It doesn't count as a criminal justice moment.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 22, 2008 (boomark / email).