Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice's Call

Chief Justice Bernette Joshua Johnson issued a letter to her colleagues in the Judicial, Executive and Legislative Branches, calling for Justice for All in Louisiana and asking them to consider ways in which they can improve the justice system in the midst of recent events including the pandemic and the recent killing of Mr. George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and ensuing protests. Recent tragedies, Coronavirus pandemic has quickly caused disruption in our world, taking over one hundred thousand American lives, causing millions of hardworking people to lose their jobs, and destroying countless small businesses in our communities, while we once again witnessed the brazen killing of another African American, George Floyd, by police officers before our very eyes has compelled me to write this letter. In Louisiana, the Coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately killed African Americans. In addition, we have His life is but one of countless others, including Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, that has been senselessly taken by a system that espouses equal rights under the law. As a result, millions have taken to the streets to protest around our state, our nation, and the world. The protests—though triggered by recent events—are not about one or two isolated incidences of police violence. Rather, the protests are the consequence of centuries of 2 institutionalized racism that has plagued our legal system. Statistics show that the Louisiana criminal legal system disproportionately affects African Americans, who comprise 32% of our population in Louisiana, but 70% of our prison population. African American children in Louisiana are imprisoned at almost seven times the rate of White children. Our prison population did not increase fivefold from 7,200 in 1978, to 40,000 in 2012 without decisive action over many years by the legislature and by prosecutors, juries and judges around the state. We are part of the problem they protest. I am writing to urge all of us who administer the law to hear the voices of the protesters. So many feel our criminal legal system is part of the problem. I entreat all of us to resolve to be part of the solution. We all pledge allegiance to the American flag and pledge support of our national creed that we are one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Like all of you, I firmly believe in the rule of law. But its legitimacy is in peril when African American citizens see evidence every day of a criminal legal system that appears to value Black lives less than it values White lives. As Chief Justice and chief administrator of our state’s courts, I readily admit our justice system falls far short of the equality it espouses. And I see many of its worst injustices meted out in the criminal legal system. Inequities there range from courts being funded with fines levied on poor, disproportionately African American defendants, to our longtime use of Jim Crow laws to silence African American jurors and make it easier to convict African American defendants.