If you're stopped for suspicion of drunk driving, the officer will ask you some basic identifying questions and then may proceed to conduct some field sobriety tests. There is a high chance they will have you blow into a breathalyzer to determine your blood alcohol...
Month: May 2020
States consider the problem of implicit race bias in jury selection
For a jury to be of "your peers," shouldn't it more or less reflect the ethic makeup of the community you live in?The U.S. Supreme Court case of Swain v. Alabama held that prosecutors cannot intentionally exclude African-Americans from juries without violating the...
Study: Many courts allow unscientific psychology tests as evidence
Recently, a report appeared in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest that indicated large variability in what psychological tests are being allowed in American courts. These tests are used in both civil and criminal cases and can have enormous...
In Iowa, African Americans are 7.3 times more likely to be arrested for weed
In its report "A Tale of two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform," the ACLU points out that marijuana arrests continue to clog the criminal justice system even though there is broad support for legalization. And, 9 out of 10 marijuana...