Race in Texas Justice System

In an editorial article for the Star-Telegram, writer Bob Ray Sanders asserts his reasons as to why a man currently on death row should receive a new sentencing trial in his article titled “'Race' in case stains Texas justice system.”  Mr. Sanders is targeting the citizens of Texas to prove how unfair the Texas criminal justice system is, something he blatantly dislikes. Sanders sets the tone for his editorial by opening with the statement, “Texas has so many stains on its criminal justice system that there is no societal detergent that could ever remove them all.”

Sanders focuses on the case of Duane Buck, a black man, who murdered two people and was sentenced to death based upon racially biased testimony during his trial by psychologist Walter Quijano. Quijano was also found to have made racially biased testimonies at five other trials, all defendants of which were also sentenced to death, but all five of which have all received new sentencing trials because of the testimony in their case. Sanders feels that Buck deserves a new sentencing trial because he was not given a fair one initially, and based on the information that Sanders gives the reader, I agree with him. Race should not have been a factor when Buck was being sentenced, but it was, and that alone should be grounds for a new trial.  Sanders then goes on to list issues pertaining to Buck that were not allowed in his initial sentencing trial, including the fact that his father was an abusive alcoholic and that Mr. Buck had an undiagnosed developmental disorder, among other things. Why was this information not allowed into the trial? Sanders does not clarify this for the reader. There is also a written statement that is currently being signed by political leaders and other professionals calling for a new sentencing trial, and hopefully the Court of Criminal Appeals gives him this chance after the injustice he was put through before.

            Mr. Sanders clearly lays out his evidence and logic for the reader, making it very easy to understand his point of view, making it hard not to agree with him. Mr. Buck is not fighting the charges against him, he has owned up to those, he just wants to be given the fair sentencing trial that he deserves, and Sanders proves why this is so. This piece is also thought provoking because Texas’ past (and present, whether the Supreme Court wants to admit it or not) is covered in racial and discriminatory undertones. It made me question what other “horrible stains on justice,” as Sanders calls them, are being committed by the Texas justice system and what, if anything, is being done to stop them.