Diversity still matters on court benches
By Robert O'Hale
I read with interest Doug Clark's column (Oct. 11) proclaiming that a person's race or gender shouldn't matter for a judge. Clark wrote it shouldn't matter if a judge is black, white, Asian or male or female for everyone to receive equal justice under the law. Clark recited that judicial candidates Patricia Timmons-Goodson, an African American; Sarah Parker, a white female; and Susan O'Hale, an Asian American, were somehow out of line in their belief that diversity is important on the bench.
In a perfect world, it shouldn't matter if the person being judged is a particular gender or race. It shouldn't matter that the person doing the judging is a particular gender or race. It shouldn't matter at all. But it does.
I have been a lawyer in the state and federal courts of North Carolina for 25 years. I started my law practice as an assistant district attorney in Johnston, Lee and Harnett counties. On one occasion, I was prosecuting an attempted murder case. The defendant, an African American, was charged with stabbing another African American. When I went to the judge's chamber at the end of the day to tell him I was sorry the case had taken so long, he said, "Don't worry about it. It's only a nigger cutting." I was shocked. That was only a little over 20 years ago.
Not too long ago, juries were composed of only white men. Not long ago, women couldn't vote or sit on juries. In a historical context, these events are quite recent. Our culture is slow to change. We've come a long way, but, we have miles to go.
In an idealistic sense, Clark is right. Race and gender shouldn't matter in the courts. In a realistic sense he is absolutely wrong. I am not so confident as Clark that we have put all our prejudices behind us. Parker, O'Hale and Timmons-Goodson have every right to proclaim their "diversity" as an important aspect of our judiciary. If we want justice, we should strive for a representative judiciary. The face of justice should be a reflection of all of us.
The writer lives in Greensboro and is married to District Court candidate Susan O'Hale.
Comments (4)
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"It's only nigger cutting"
That is priceless. And not one single response. Amazing.
Posted on November 7, 2006 9:35 AM
robert o'hale is a lying defense attorney...since when does his opinion matter at all?
Posted on November 7, 2006 2:24 PM
We live in a time when diversity is very important. I don't see the playing field being level and fair yet. I still see the need, from my experience and my view, for EEO and AA.
I don't know the author of this article but what he says in the end of his letter is absolutely believable.
Posted on November 7, 2006 4:17 PM
joejoe,
I see the need for EEO and AA but I find them truly impossible to enforce. How do you tell when someone is truly equal to another candidate?
I've been in situations where there has been a concerted effort to try to make the racial make-up of the workplace mirror that of society. Sounds like a good thing in a way. However, when you do that, it can limit you to only being able to hire a black person, or white person, or hispanic, etc in order to strike that balance. If you hire 3 black folks in a row, sooner or later you're going to have to hire a white person to bring things back in balance. On the other hand, you could just hire people based on merit, and then end up with an all black office or all white office. It seems like things like that would work themselves out but it doesn't always happen that way?
So, what should we strive for? Hiring the best candidate for the job or discriminating against folks so we can have racial balance. It isn't as easy of a decision as it appears to be. (IMO)
Posted on November 7, 2006 4:28 PM