Sotomayor chides prosecutor for ‘racially charged’ question
Source: Washington Post
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor accused a Texas federal prosecutor Monday of tapping into a “deep and sorry vein of racial prejudice” in his questioning of a black man facing a drug charge.
The justices did not accept Bongani Charles Calhoun’s request that the court review his conviction, but Sotomayor appended a scathing statement to make sure that the court’s denial was not be seen as a signal of “tolerance of a federal prosecutor’s racially charged remark.”
Sotomayor did not name Assistant U.S. Attorney Sam L. Ponder in her statement, but she denounced his questioning of Calhoun, who maintained in court that he did not know that the friends with whom he was traveling were planning a drug deal.
Ponder had asked Calhoun: “You’ve got African Americans, you’ve got Hispanics, you’ve got a bag full of money. Does that tell you — a light bulb doesn’t go off in your head and say, ‘This is a drug deal?’ ”
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sotomayor-chides-prosecutor-for-racially-charged-question/2013/02/25/23e4a836-7f8d-11e2-b99e-6baf4ebe42df_story.html
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Good to have a lawyer amongst us.
I hate law. Helped my mom edit her essays in real estate law and criminal law. Really fascinating stuff but it's not terribly interesting to me (fascinating when reading, but if I wasn't helping my mom edit her essays for school, I wouldn't have cared much about it, still I learned a lot). She can't do Word very well but she's one sharp lady.
edit: she actually has a signed letter from Sotomayor congratulating her on her success in criminal law, because she did a paper and sent it to Sotomayor and apparently Sotomayor read it. One of her proudest possessions. 
