Trial Lawyers College Statement of Support For Black Lives Matter
The Trial Lawyers College supports the millions of citizens who are protesting the most recent murder of another African-American person, George Floyd, by a police state that too often demonstrates racial violence resulting in serious injury or death. Protests and marches have previously occurred when police have abused their power, to the injury, incarceration and death of people of color; but the present protests are far more extensive and lasting longer. Previous protests resulted in very little change. Now, finally, the time is ripe for much needed change. There must be a reform of the nation’s police, which the American power structure has allowed to avoid accountability. There must be a reform of the criminal justice system that presently permits racially biased prosecutors to prosecute the innocent or disproportionately seek longer prison terms or worse, the death penalty for people of color. So, too, there must be reform that stops prosecutors from functionally determining case outcomes from the charges they choose to file, the bond they choose to demand, and when and how to offer pleas to indigent defendants who are disproportionately people of color. There must be reform of and accountability of a judiciary in which judges may exercise racial bias in setting bond, in sentencing, in revoking probation, and in jury selection decisions.
