Sounding the Echoes of Racial Injustice Beyond the Death Chamber: Strategies for Moving Past McCleskey

Abstract

I thank Professors Dorothy Roberts, Kendall Thomas, and David Rudovsky for providing such provoking food-for-thought at this special Symposium. These three scholars propose ways of helping us move past McCleskey v. Kemp's framework, which fosters the legal denial of race discrimination in the application of criminal laws in the United States. Professors Roberts and Thomas offer examples of the ways in which courts ignore the historical realities of racism in criminal justice and propose that we educate and re-educate people about the fundamentals of racial discrimination in the application of criminal laws. Professor Rudovsky offers examples of successful litigation challenging criminal justice policies and practices that target African Americans and other people of color living in the United States.