Thread by @rachelbusygrl

A Black defendant has his convictions reversed by the Oregon Court of Appeals because the DAs excused the only 2 Black jurors over the defense objection & this hasn't made a single local news outlet? Portland murder trial reversed - trial was under then MultCo DA Rod Underhill.

Oregon was the VERY LAST state to stop the racist practice of non-unanimous jury verdicts. COA says in its opinion, "We begin with the axiom, no longer subject to reasonable debate, that racial discrimination in the selection of jurors is harmful."
This should be a big deal.

COA ends with, "That implausibility is evidence of purposeful discrimination which, in light of “all of the circumstances that bear on racial animosity,” leads us to the conclusion that the trial court clearly erred in excusing jurors number 6 & number 9 from the trial jury."

Link to full Court of Appeals opinion in State v McWoods here: cdm17027.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/search…

The Oregon criminal justice system is in crisis & the Portland Defense Services Commission - which oversees Oregon Public Defense Services - is composed of 6 white men, 1 Black man, & 3 white women (including Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Walters). Where is the diversity?

Diversity matters. WHY is it local Portland news outlets don't see the extreme importance of the McWoods case being reversed for DAs excusing jurors for "racial animosity" in 2018? How many trials has this happened in when the trial atty didn't make as clear a record for appeal?

Oh look! A @maxoregonian story from 2016 on how Black people are overrepresented in each stage of Multnomah County's adult criminal justice system:

oregonlive.com/portland/2016/…

And a 2018 @ACLU_OR tweet regarding then DA Rod Underhill's budget, one that lacked any meaningful direction to reduce racial disparities:

https://twitter.com/ACLU_OR/status/996932024291098624

A 2019 story from @conradjwilson "While the rate of people of color in Multnomah County's criminal justice system decreased during the last five years, the rate of people of color in jail increased for all groups except Native Americans," per Burns report
.opb.org/news/article/m…

Rod Underhill was Multnomah County DA from January 2013 to August 2020. What was happening the summer of 2020? The pandemic & #BlackLivesMatter protests that started after George Floyd was murdered. It's important to note things were not rosy for everyone while Underhill was DA.

For every story being run about how unsafe downtown is & how many dissatisfied Multnomah DAs & staffers are quitting the office - compare to old office policy? Like no second look for juveniles who negotiated out of BM11 but sent to OYA, when youth are easiest to rehabilitate.

Take another look at all the above-linked stories & reports on the enormous racial disparity in Multnomah county criminal justice system. Do we have any updates yet on racial disparity?
Bias & prejudice is everywhere - including news reporting - & change is hard & takes time.

Sometimes it's hard to recognize our own bias when our privilege gives us blinders. For ex. I know a number of male attys who are allies & had no idea most of their women colleagues affidavit a certain judge because of sexism. Why would they when it doesn't happen to them?

Which is why having a more diverse PDSC is important. And why in all these talks & meetings & #orleg committees on criminal justice system crisis: not having trial attorneys in the room is a problem. Diversity matters to get the full picture, as well as some practical solutions.

Also why reporters should include context that former DA Underhill quit rather than respond to public protest against racial disparities of office. Like 2014 report Black probationers in MultCo were more than 2x likely to be revoked as white probationers:
urban.org/research/publi…

And this person worked for county NOT the DA's office, but was fired for sharing racial disparity data & Underhill was part of the group upset by data being shared:
portlandmercury.com/news/2017/12/1…

Here's more from @dirquez on the employee being placed on leave initially and includes the entire presentation:
portlandmercury.com/news/2017/12/0…

Here's the entire 2017 presentation on racial disparity in Multnomah County on YouTube it's got slides & is just under an hour:

When Mike Schmidt was working as a Multnomah County deputy district attorney a decade ago, he didn’t notice any racial disparities. “I know what I saw going through the doors,& the majority of cases we processed were male white defendants.” @NickBudnick
invw.org/2017/03/02/the…

The problem is what Schmidt saw was not the reality. "The data he sees now shows that in 2015 the rate of African-Americans being convicted for cocaine possession in Multnomah County was more than 100 times that of white defendants — 116 per 100,000 people versus 1 per 100,000."

This brings us back to bias - specifically implicit bias - which is defined as: a form of bias that occurs automatically and unintentionally, that nevertheless affects judgments, decisions, and behaviors.

The existence of implicit bias is precisely why it is imperative that more diverse voices & perspectives be sought out & included in the ongoing discussions, meetings & committees that are focused on solving Oregon's current criminal justice system crisis.