Hernandez vs. Texas and its Importance to Latinos in the U.S.
Studies conducted in the past have clearly indicated that some racial groups are overrepresented in the U.S. criminal justice system. There have been claims that some stages of the criminal justice system disadvantage some groups, with some of the disadvantaged groups being Asian-Americans, Hispanics, and African-Americans. This text largely concerns itself with the U.S. Supreme court ruling of Hernandez vs. Texas, a landmark Court ruling that has had a significant impact on the civil rights of Mexican-Americans. In so doing, it will, amongst other things, speculate on the relevance of this particular court ruling to Latinos in the U.S.
Overview
In basic terms, the Hernandez case "involved the exclusion of Mexican-Americans from serving as jurors, which, like voting, is a primary duty and privilege of U.S. citizenship" (Soltero, 2009, p. 38). Accused of murdering Joe Espinoza, Hernandez was indicted by a grand jury whose members were all white. The attorneys of the accused tried their best to ensure that the indictment was quashed with the claim that in addition to being barred from the judge-selecting jury commission, Mexican-Americans were also excluded in petit juries. The accused person's attorneys also raised concern that no person of Mexican descent was, in this particular case, serving in the jury. This exclusion was used by the attorneys of the accused as the basis of the claim that there was systematic discrimination of citizens of Mexican ancestry as a special class. The motions were denied by the trial court and the accused promptly sentenced to life imprisonment by the all-white jury (Soltero, 2009).
On appeal, Hernandez's pleas were rejected by Texas' highest criminal court on the basis that Mexicans were essentially "white people of Spanish descent" (in distinction to those from the 'Negro Race') and could, therefore, not be categorized as a special race (Soltero, 2009, p. 39). With this, the court pointed out that "since other white people served on the juries, the absence of people of Mexican ancestry did not violate equal protection" (Soltero, 2009, p. 38). As per the decision, therefore, Mexicans could not be put under the 'special class' banner as encapsulated in the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment. On this front, the key query or issue of concern remained: was making use of a jury that deliberately excluded members of a particular ancestry or race to try an individual that came from the excluded ancestry or race a breach of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment? In a unanimous decision reached by the Supreme Court, other racial groups that existed in communities, beyond the two under consideration (i.e. Negros and whites), were also protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. More specifically, the court found that "the Fourteenth Amendment is not directed solely against discrimination due to a two-class theory' -- that is, based upon differences between 'white' and Negro" (Garc'a, 2009, p. 180).
Factors Impacting on the Latina/o Experience in the Criminal Justice System and their Relevance to the Topic
The Latina's experience in the American criminal justice system is impacted upon by a wide range of economic, social, political, as well as legal factors. Two of these include racial profiling and diminished educational and economic opportunities.
Racial Profiling and Stereotypes: for a long time, the issue of racial profiling has largely been discussed in terms of back and white. Essentially, racial profiling could assume many forms. Essentially, it involves the utilization of either the ethnicity or race of an individual as the basis for some decision by law enforcement personnel. For instance, in this case, law enforcement could use the ethnic extract or race of an individual to make a decision on whether or not to partake in some enforcement duty, i.e. arrest or search. According to Levin in Alvarez (as cited in Cyndi, 2009), Latinos are not only thought by most to be lazy, but also sneaky and thieving. For this reason, "law enforcement practices and the criminal justice system have been shown to collaborate in discrimination against Latinos in the form of police harassment of Mexican-Americans" (Cyndi, 2009, p. 67). As recently as the year 2003, university professors hired by the DOJ came to the conclusion that Latino drivers were actively being profiled by law enforcement officers in Alamance Country. This was widely reported in the media.
Many witnesses have, in the past, reported that a number of law enforcement agencies such as the LAPD have well-entrenched practices that condone the harassment of minorities (The Sentencing Project, 2013). This is particularly the case when it comes to the...
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