Assignment: Jury Nullification Paper CJA/ 344 Week 4 November 25, 2012 Mr. Jones
CJA 344 Week 3 Assignment Jury Nullification Paper Ongoing debate exists on the issue of whether indeed ethnicity influences proceedings in the court room or not. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said in a 2001 speech that a judge's gender and ethnicity does, and should, influence his or her decision-making on the bench. Sotomayor made the comments on October 26, 2001, at a University of California-Berkeley symposium marking the 40th anniversary of the first Latino named to the federal district court. She states something very relevant to this which was, "I wonder whether by ignoring our differences as women or men of color we do a disservice both to the law and society," she said at the event, sponsored by the law school. "I further accept that our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions. The aspiration to impartiality is just that — it's an aspiration because it denies the fact that we are by our experiences making different choices than others." "Our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. This is not to say that all African Americans, all Latinos or all women share the same views and life experiences. This too would be a silly position. But it is to say that in our society, factors such as race, gender and social class influence our lives and how we are treated. These experiences help shape how a person approaches legal issues and how a judge decides cases. Another high role model included in his campaign a very remarkable man’s quote which was, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their
