A Louisville, Kentucky Judge has been suspended 90 days for calling out questionable courtroom practices in which all-white juries were suspected of being used for minority defendants.
WDRB 41 Louisville News is reporting Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Olu Stevens has been charged with judicial misconduct & placed on 90-day suspension, without pay after publicly criticizing prosecutor Tom Wine after Wine challenged his decision to dismiss an all-white jury, as well as complaints about the quality of defense attorneys & some particularly harsh comments he had for victims of a robbery back in February.
The robbery victims had previously been assaulted at gunpoint by Black men and Judge Stevens wondered if they were “fostering” the views of their 5-year old daughter, whom the family said was still afraid of Black men after the ordeal:
“I wonder if the perpetrator had been white, would they be in fear of white men?” Stevens said during the Feb. 4, 2015 hearing. “The answer would probably be no. I’m offended by that.”
Judge Stevens was in front of the State Judicial Conduct Commission Monday to offer an apology to Wine:
“I recognize how serious it is to accuse someone, either expressly or implicitly, of racism,” Stevens read from a prepared statement. “I do not believe Tom Wine is a racist. I apologize for any statements that implied as much.”
Wine responded:
“I have had no personal animosity towards Judge Stevens and I have none now,” Wine said. “I believe my energies and focus are better spent working for justice and fairness with our criminal justice partners and protecting victims of crime.”
What we have here is a clear case of a Judge who’s having a deep, internal struggle with the structure of the system he works for. Furthermore, he’s not wrong. Yes, he could have worded some of his concerns differently; but in essence he’s right to question these practices.
How many times have stories surfaced involving Judges sending Black people to jail for petty crimes? A huge part of that is the jury selection, a process usually overseen by the prosecution.
If you’re supposed to be judged by a jury of your PEERS and not one person on the staff looks like you, how fair is that?
Hopefully Judge Stevens relocates seamlessly if he so chooses, because I highly doubt the rest of his term here will be a tranquil as he’d like it.
Flip the page for more details and video..