NCJ Number
179694
Journal
Criminal Practice Law Report Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Dated: May 1997 Pages: 25-32
Date Published
1997
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This first part of a two-part paper discusses several actual cases in which the defendants claimed self-defense to illustrate how racial stereotypes can influence perceptions of reasonableness in the use of force in such circumstances.
Abstract
Bernhard Goetz, a white man, fired at four black youths on a subway train after one of the youths asked Goetz to give him $5. No weapons were displayed by the youths. At his trial for assault, attempted murder, reckless endangerment, and illegal possession of a weapon, Goetz claimed he acted in self-defense. The jury of 10 whites and 2 blacks found Goetz not guilty on all of the charges except illegal possession of a weapon. Goetz's claim of self-defense should have been rejected. Under New York law, a defendant is justified in using defensive physical force only if he/she honestly and reasonably believed two things: that his/her assailant was attacking or was about to attack; and that the use of physical force was necessary to defend himself/herself. None of the actions of the youths suggested an attack on Goetz was imminent, and there was no evidence that Goetz had to shoot at the youths to defend himself. The jury instructions, which did not mention race or racial stereotypes, did not reduce the chances that the race of the victims might prejudice the jurors in Goetz's favor. In another case, Soon Ja Du, a Korean-American woman who owned and operated a liquor store in Los Angeles with her husband, shot and killed Latasha Harlins, a 15-year-old African-American girl, after a dispute over a bottle of orange juice. At trial, Du claimed she shot Harlins in self-defense. Although Du was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, which indicates the jury rejected her self-defense claim, the sentencing judge imposed an extraordinarily lenient sentence. The Soon Ja Du case illustrates how the model minority stereotype can benefit some Asian Americans; however, negative stereotypes of Asian-Americans may also be involved in self-defense claims when Asian-Americans are victims. Such stereotypes include the Asian-as-foreigner and the Asian as proficient and threatening in the martial arts. This paper also discusses cases in which self-defense cases involved the stereotype of Latinos as foreigners and as criminals. For part 2 of this paper, see NCJ-179695.