Tag Archives: court

The Summer in Review

by: Christopher Ajizian The University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review, as its name may suggest, seeks to promote and publish information about inequality, race and injustice in America. Since our blog went offline in May, several significant events occurred that concern race and social justice in America. As the kickoff blog post […]

Ending the Collateral Consequences of Criminal Records

BY: MARLON BAQUEDANO The American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section has catalogued more than 38,000 statutes nationwide that impose collateral consequences on people convicted of crimes; these statutes create barriers to jobs, housing, welfare benefits, and voting.[1] The majority of these statutes (80%) work as denial of employment opportunities.[2] This means that statutes that make […]

Life or Death? That is the (Jury’s) Question.

BY: MARIA ORDONEZ Timothy Lee Hurst was charged and convicted with the gruesome May 2, 1998, killing of Cynthia Harrison during a robbery at the Popeye’s restaurant in Escambia County, Florida, where they were both employed. After he was granted a new sentencing trial because of counsel’s ineffective assistance[1], Hurst was again sentenced to death […]

On Strike: Supreme Court to Decide on Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection

BY: LAUREN MADDOX In 1986, the Supreme Court decided Batson v. Kentucky, holding that use of peremptory challenges to remove jurors from the jury pool based on race is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.[1] The following year, Timothy Tyrone Foster, an 18-year-old black male, was convicted and sentenced to […]