By LeRoy Pernell & Omar Saleem

CASES AND MATERIALS ON COMBATTING RACISM IN CRIMINAL PROCEDURE addresses the emerging national concern over the unwanted, but often ignored, role of race in American criminal justice. Legal scholars have long noted that race plays a role in how our criminal process works. However, no previous casebook has systematically traced the role that race has played at each major stage of the criminal process, while noting analytical and practical strategies that have been used to minimize race’s influence. The purpose of this work is not simply to acknowledge and accept the presence of race in our criminal courts, but to actually provide tools — both conceptual and practical — for counteracting its influence.

The timing for addressing this hole in legal education is now. The recent attention that has been drawn to racially disproportionate mass incarceration, wrongful convictions, and violent interactions with law enforcement, make it imperative that our legal educational system produce persons trained in the law to bring about positive, transformative change. On July 14, 2015 President Barack Obama, in a historic and unique statement for a United States President, declared that the American criminal justice system is particularly skewed by race and wealth. Across the country there is a growing realization that racial injustice in the criminal process cannot continue.

About the authors:

LeRoy Pernell has practiced, taught, and written in the areas of Criminal Procedure, Race and the Law, and Juvenile Justice, as well as other areas, for over 46 years. A former Public Defender, He has testified before the Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives, regarding habeas corpus reform, and was appointed by the late United States Representative John Conyers (D. Mich.) to preside over a subcommittee on Juvenile Justice and to work with the Congressional Black Caucus on issues of Criminal Justice. He currently is a Professor of Law, and past Dean, at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University College of Law. He is also Past Dean and Professor Emeritus, at Northern Illinois University College of Law, and a past Professor of Law at Ohio State.

Omar Saleem has practiced, taught, and written in the areas of Criminal Procedure, Race and the Law, and the Second Amendment for over 30 years. He is a former Assistant Public Defender, a Legal Services attorney and Law Clerk for the Honorable Henry E. Frye, Associate Justice for the North Carolina Supreme Court. He has handled criminal proceeding in juvenile, district and superior court and filed appeals at the North Carolina appellate level. He has taught in countries abroad and published on international and comparative law issues with a particular focus on China. He currently is Professor of Law, and former founding Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University College of Law.

March 2021, Paperback, 876 pages

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-60042-531-8