TEXAS FEDERAL JUDGE EDITH JONES CHARGED WITH RACIAL BIAS AND MISCONDUCT: Judicial Update By Attorney and Author Charles Ware

www.CharlesJeromeWare.com ("We fight.  You win.")

Senior federal judge Edith H. Jones of Houston, Texas, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, is now the subject of a judicial misconduct and racial bias complaint filed with 5th Circuit chief judge Carl E. Stewart of Louisiana (the first black in the job) by a group of civil rights organizations and legal ethicists.

The complaint against the judge alleges that recent remarks of hers made in a speech at the University of Pennsylvania Law School in February, 2013, in which she said that blacks and Hispanics were more prone than other ("anglos") to commit violent crimes, and that the death penalty was a service to defendants because it allowed them to "make peace with God", were racially biased, insensitive and constituted judicial misconduct.

The complaint against Jones is signed by representatives of, among others, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the Texas Civil Rights Project and the Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Program and cites a number of people who attended the lecture.
      

A spokesman for the law school, Steven Barnes, said that the Federalist Society, the conservative group that hosted the speech, did not record it and that there appeared to be no transcript.

 

According to the complaint, Judge Jones, 64, white and female, who was nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan, and who until recently was the chief judge of the Fifth Circuit and mentioned during Republican administrations as a possible Supreme Court nominee, said that “racial groups like African-Americans and Hispanics are predisposed to crime.”

      

The complaint says such statements are astonishingly and flagrantly biased and violated the judicial code’s requirement that a judge be impartial and avoid damaging public confidence in the judiciary.

      

One of the affidavits accompanying the complaint is from Marc Bookman, a veteran death penalty lawyer in Pennsylvania, who attended the lecture. He quoted Judge Jones as saying, “Sadly, some groups seem to commit more heinous crimes than others.” When asked to elaborate, Judge Jones “noted there was no arguing that ‘blacks’ and ‘Hispanics’ far outnumber ‘Anglos’ on death row and repeated that ‘sadly’ people from these racial groups do get involved in more violent crime,” the affidavit said.

 

Another affidavit is from James M. McCormack, former chief disciplinary counsel for the Texas bar, who said that based on the complaint, “it is my opinion that Judge Jones violated the ethical standards applicable to federal judges under the Code of Conduct for United States judges.”

      

Judge Jones is alleged to have said that the defenses often offered in capital cases, including mental retardation and systemic racism, were “red herrings.” She also said, according to the witnesses, that Mexicans would prefer to be on death row in the United States rather than in prison in Mexico.

Charles W. Wolfram, one of the country’s experts in legal ethics who is retired from Cornell Law School, said Judge Jones’s alleged statements were a cause of great concern.

      

“If I were a parent of a black with borderline IQ accused in a capital case, would I be distressed in knowing that Judge Jones was sitting on my case?” he asked in a telephone interview. “Yes, I would. She seems to have made up her mind on these issues. She is slanted. That is the whole point of the impartiality requirement.”

      

Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics scholar at New York University, said that if Judge Jones really did say that death penalties serve the condemned by forcing them to face God, that was troubling.

 

“If a judge were to say that during sentencing, that sentence would be vacated,” he said. “It suggests that she believes she is helping the accused by giving a death sentence. That is totally inappropriate.” He said the central question concerning her alleged statements about race and crime depended heavily on tone and context.

      

The fate of the complaint now lies with the circuit’s chief judge, Carl E. Stewart of Louisiana, the first black in the job. He could dismiss it, speak privately with Judge Jones or order an investigation and set up a committee of judges either in his circuit or another one. Most complaints against judges, many of which come from inmates, are dismissed.

 

www.CharlesJeromeWare.com ("We fight.  You win.")

 Attorney Charles Jerome Ware is renowned and consistently ranked among the best attorneys and legal counsellors in the United States. [GQ Magazine, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, The Columbia Flier, USA TODAY, The Howard County Sun, The Anniston Star, The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX-TV NEWS, WHUR, WHUT, MPT, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, ABA Journal, et al.]

 

[www.abajournal.com/news/article/federal appeals judge accused; www.nytimes.com/05-06-2013/US/federal judge in texas is accused of racial bias; www.austinchronicle.com/blog/news/06-04-2013/judge edith jones: blacks and Hispanics more violent; www.mysanantonio.com/news/localnews/article/complaint alleges federal judge is prejudiced, biased]