Martin Luther King Day

Good morning folks! In honor of Martin Luther King Day, I wanted to post a commentary that I wrote in 2007 after the extensive coverage received by the Duke rape case involving three white college kids as defendants. While I generally keep things light and fun here on The Daily Cynema, I woke up this morning at around 4am (courtesy of a Parker wake up call) and felt compelled to share this with you. I should also tell you that race, ethnicity and crime is my area of specialization, so not surprisingly, I feel rather strongly on issues of justice and injustice.

Colleagues and friends,

It is with increasing disgust that I continue to follow the Duke Lacrosse rape case. Having watched a press conference in which two of the players spoke out about their experiences, several key points have remained with me. Seligmann, one of the accused, shared several eloquent sound bites referencing the "dark cloud of injustice" that has surrounded the case and expounded on how this country has "lost sight of the presumption of innocence." Perhaps an individual like Seligmann can expect a presumption of innocence. Perhaps an upper-middle class white male with the resources to hire a legal team for representation has the luxury to talk about a presumption of innocence.

Seligmann, of course, is in the minority considering that the average individual that passes through the revolving doors of the criminal justice system is a member of a faceless horde of disenfranchised Americans; individuals who have neither the voice nor the slick representation to navigate the often convoluted maze of the system. For those individuals, this country has not lost the presumption of innocence because it never existed in the first place. Ask the individuals who lack the resources to make bail and must remain in pretrial detention about their presumption of innocence. Ask the individual whose face is featured as a suspect on the 6 o'clock news in countless of cities around the country about his presumption of innocence. I'm quite certain that you won't be surprised by the answers you receive.

Seligmann did drop in a sound bite about how his experience has "opened his eyes" to the injustice that is possible in the system. He goes on to say that if an individual such as himself can be arrested and prosecuted, imagine what can occur to people who cannot afford to defend themselves. The important point in his statement is the reference to his inalienable belief that a difference exists between him and the multitude of others accused of crimes. In fact, the difference between his situation and "theirs" is not limited to monetary resources or even to social capital. It is the belief supported by our hegemonic patriarchy that elite white males exist in a dimension of society shared only by their peers.

I also read that the District Attorney issued an apology to the players while North Carolina's Attorney General proclaimed their innocence. Considering my personal experience with criminal cases, this is not only laughable, but insulting. If you want to find someone deserving of an apology, you need look no further than Juan Melendez, who served 17 years on death row prior to his exoneration. There was no physical evidence in his case linking him to the crime. Perhaps he would like an apology? How about Rudolph Holton, who was released after 16 years on death row prior to his exoneration? I'm sure the family of Frank Lee Smith would also appreciate an apology since you can't apologize to him directly. He dies of cancer in prison more than a decade after he was convicted of the rape and murder of a child. He was exonerated by DNA posthumously.

So congratulations Seligmann. You can now close your eyes again since your own personal nightmare is over. I wish I could say the same for the "others" not as fortunate.