Themester lecture examines judicial system shortcomings

Southern Center for Human Rights President and Senior Council Stephen Bright described the corruption facing the United States judicial system during a Themester lecture about the death penalty Wednesday at the Maurer School of Law.

The mission of the Southern Center for Human Rights is to help low-income individuals accused of crimes by providing legal counsel.

Bright is known for recently representing Allen Snyder, an African-American man convicted by an all-while jury of fatally stabbing his estranged wife and her boyfriend, in Snyder v. Louisiana. The case was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled a Louisiana prosecutor used peremptory strikes, the privilege of a defendant to challenge assignment of jurors without cause, to exclude blacks from the jury.

“When I go to the courthouse, I see the white judge and prosecutor,” Bright said.  “I always see white juries still today.”

Bright said that during the time of legalized slavery, any black person who
committed a crime was subject to the death penalty.

“In three of the southern states, there were more blacks than whites,” Bright said. “The death penalty was absolutely essential in keeping that population under control and not rebelling.”

The U.S. has never passed an anti-lynching bill even though there has been what he called terrorism in the country for a long time, he said.

After the Civil War, the South was able to perpetuate slavery by convict leasing,  Bright said, the process of arresting African-Americans and leasing them out to do work, which often consisted of physical labor.

Bright highlighted how the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world.  
He also said that in the 1970s, when he was a public defender, about 200,000 people were detained in U.S. prisons. 

The U.S. prisoner population was 1.6 million at the end of 2010, according to a press release by the Department of Justice.

Bright said there are more African-Americans on parole, probation and in prison today than there were in the 1950s.

“A person of color is more likely to be stopped by the police and more likely to be abused on the stop,” Bright said. 

Bright also said  there are many white jurors in areas with high African-American populations.

He said this has occurred in Columbus, Ga. Forty-three percent of the population was composed of African-Americans at the time of the 2000 U.S. Census, according to the city’s planning department.

Bright said a fundamental problem is when justice depends on how much money a person has.

“You can’t really claim to be a society based on the rule of law if every day your judges, legislators and executives are violating the fundamental, constitutional court requirements,” Bright said.

He said it’s the responsibility of lawyers to make sure justice works for everybody.
“You’re getting the client the representation he or she deserves,” he said.
Bright has not always gotten everything he wanted for his clients, but he said he has been a support for them.

“It’s not a bad way to live a life of law, and you can help a tremendous amount of people,” he said.