Judge James Shoreman

Scenario: Judge James Shoreman is up for reelection in 2 months. He has a full docket on Monday morning. Two of the individuals on this docket are Thomas J. Catalano and Abdul Hussein Jabari. Mr. Catalano has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. His prior record consists of breaking and entering, assault on a police officer, and possession of narcotics. Mr. Catalano has a “high-priced” lawyer with the discretionary funds for an additional investigation. Mr. Catalano has a wife and two children. He has been employed for 5 years at the local banking institution. Mr. Catalano has received a 10-year probation sentence with the stipulation that if he violates this probation, he will serve the remainder of the sentence in the state prison. Mr. Jabari has been charged with the distribution of a controlled substance (prescription drugs). His prior record consists of possession of narcotics and falsification of identity. Mr. Jabari has a court-appointed lawyer who is on the pro bono list maintained by the judge. His funds are limited but the Muslim community has rallied to his financial aid, and there have been demonstrations at the courthouse. Mr. Jabari has a wife and three children. He has been employed for 8 years as the chief chef at a local restaurant. Mr. Jabari has received 7 years in the state prison, without the possibility of good time.

We learn that Mr. Catalano was charged with involuntary manslaughter based on the scenario. We also learn that Mr. Catalano has a paid lawyer who is considered a high-priced lawyer and has been employed at his job for five years. His record consists of breaking and entering, possession of narcotics, and assault on a police officer. Mr. Catalano has been given a ten-year sentence to probation where if he should violate the terms, he will spend the remainder of his sentence in the state prison.

In comparison, Mr. Jabari was charged with distributing a controlled substance (prescription drugs). Mr. Jabari has a prior record of possession of narcotics and falsification of identity. Mr. Jabari was appointed a lawyer off the pro bono list. Mr. Jabari is not as fortunate and relies on his Muslim community to help him with his financial aid. Mr. Jabari has been given seven years in the state prison without the possibility of a good time. Both men have a wife and children. Mr. Catalano has two children, and Mr. Jabari has three.

I feel that Mr. Catalano got off on probation because he has the funds to afford a high-priced lawyer and can fund an investigation. Mr. Catalano has also worked at their local bank for five years. In comparison, Mr. Jabari worked as the chief chef at a local restaurant for the last eight years. In addition, Mr. Jabari had community support from the Muslim community, and there is no mention of whether Mr. Catalano had community support or not.

However, we need to consider how Muslim Americans have been treated for the past twenty years because of 9/11. According to ABCNews, hate crimes that target Muslims began to climb from 2000 to 2001. America saw it rise 1617%, which was the highest America has seen towards Islamophobia. (Alfonseca, K., 2021) There is a Muslim couple who owns a gas station near my home. I have witnessed people spit on their floors and call them terrorists. Islamophobia is still an issue in America, and if you keep an eye out for others, you can see the injustice others face daily by those around us.

Since Judge James Shoreman is up for reelection in two months, he gave the outcome he believed would get him the most votes. Since Islamophobia is still an issue in America, the Judge knew that putting the Muslim man in prison would be something society would view as positive. Since there are approximately 1,354,522 individuals in West Virginia and only about 103 Muslims per 100 thousand individuals (Pirani, F., 2017), the Judge decided to do what he believed would get him more votes.

Since Mr. Catalanio's race was not mentioned in the scenario, I assume he appears to be white because of his last name. An example of discrimination against anyone who is not white would be that if Hispanics or African Americans were arrested at the same rate as white individuals, the prison population would be cut by almost forty percent! (NAACP, 2021)

Unfortunately, like many judges, this Judge chose to keep the white population happy to get more votes for his reelection.

An individual charged with distributing a controlled substance faces a fine of no less than a hundred dollars and no more than ten thousand dollars with an incarceration period of one to ten years in prison, and since Mr. Jabari's history is possession of narcotics, the Judge can give Mr. Jabari a heightened penalty. (LegalMatch, 2021) However, I believe that Judge Shoreman has exhibited a bias in the form of discrimination with Mr. Jabari's case because Mr. Catalano was a violent offender in the past and received a lesser punishment.

Several cases show minorities being unfairly convicted of a crime. An example would be Ed Johnson in Chattanooga, Tennesse, in 1906. The victim was a white woman who said that a leather strap caused her to become unconscious and because she believed Mr. Johnson had a leather strap, his all-white jury convicted him. Mr. Johnson was later killed by a mob breaking into the prison and performing a public hanging. However, his conviction was overturned in February of 2000. This conviction was biased and was, unfortunately, part of the segregation era. (Grimsley, 2013)

The following case that stuck out to me is the State of Ohio v. Laurese Glover, where a 14-year-old girl Tamika Harris was the eyewitness to the murder of Clifton Hudson on February 10 of 1995. When questioned, Tamika said she saw a boy shoot a boy on the bridge above her head. When Glover's hands were tested for gun powder residue, they tested negative. Other witnesses to the murder stated that Glover and his friend did not match the description of the man who shot Clifton.

However, the jury convicted Glover and two of his friends of murder and sentenced them to 15 years to life in prison. When Harris testified at the appeal for one of the other youths involved (over eight years later), she admitted that the photo the police showed her was suggestive and made her believe that Johnson (Glover's friend) was one of the offenders. The courts denied Glover and Wheatt a retrial based on the new information presented through Harris's new testimony. (casetext, 2016)

I feel that the bias in this is that the police officers showed the witness many photos of random black youths and since trauma plays a significant role in situations like this (especially 14-year-olds), Tamika Harris easily misidentified the ones involved. Furthermore, in the case file, Tamika's testimony changed several times, which shows that there is a possibility that her testimony is not creditable. Finally, this case seems to have been pushed to be closed as fast as possible regardless of the other testimonies stating that Glover and his friends were not involved.

References

Alfonseca, K. (2021, September 11). 20 years after 9/11, Islamophobia continues to haunt Muslims.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/20-years-911-islamophobia-continues-haunt-muslims/story?id=79732049

Casetext. (2016, May 5). State v. Glover.

https://casetext.com/case/state-v-glover-174/case-details?PHONE_NUMBER_GROUP=P

Grimsley, E. (2013, February 28). African American wrongful convictions throughout history.

https://innocenceproject.org/african-american-wrongful-convictions-throughout-history/

LegalMatch. (2021). Drug distribution penalties.

https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/drug-distribution-penalties.html

NAACP. (2021). Criminal justice fact sheet.

https://naacp.org/resources/criminal-justice-fact-sheet

Pirani, F. (2017, May 25). Muslims in America, by the numbers.

https://www.ajc.com/news/national/muslims-america-the-numbers/tJI0VhrVWDYQ1wCplHjozK/