Reopening Los Angeles’ Racial Wounds

Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner’s costly blunder earlier this week, in the case of three men charged with beating truck driver Reginald Denny in the early hours of the Los Angeles riots, has reinforced the impression among many in the black community that the legal system will twist itself inside out to deny justice to African-Americans.

There are many lawyers and judges who have worked hard to ensure equal justice for all Americans, and Reiner counts himself among such lawyers. But the damage he did this week will not be easily undone or explained away.

Reiner challenged the assignment of Superior Court Judge Roosevelt F. Dorn, a black jurist, to hear the beating case. The district attorney and the defense are each legally allowed one chance to excuse a judge without cause. Reiner used his to challenge Dorn; a lawyer representing one of the defendants challenged Judge George Trammell, a white judge next assigned to the case.

We do not question Reiner’s legal right to challenge Dorn, but we do question his judgment and veracity. His explanation was dishonest; he claimed first that Dorn’s other judicial responsibilities might slow the trial of this case, and then claimed that his real concern was Dorn’s temperament.

The faith in the essential fairness of the justice system already had been shaken by the not-guilty verdicts last April of four white policemen charged with beating motorist Rodney King. Thus Reiner’s contradictory explanation of why he challenged a black judge in the Denny case only served to further heighten suspicions about the system’s procedural and substantive integrity.

Without questioning the capabilities of Judge John H. Reid, a white jurist in whose courtroom the case now resides, Reiner’s bumbling move has refueled widespread concern that the defendants in the Denny beating will not receive a fair trial before a white judge. Although the court may not have created the mess, the mess is now in the court officers’ laps. It is important now that the court seriously reconsider naming another judge, with the consideration of the crucial perception as well as the reality of fairness in mind.

But this sorry episode raises larger, and very troubling questions. Does a “fair trial” in a racially charged case now require that the skin color of the judge match that of the defendant? Further, Dorn is the only African-American judge now on the Downtown criminal court and one of only 17 black judges among the Superior Court’s 232 sitting judges. Wouldn’t Reiner’s challenge to Judge Dorn have been significantly less inflammatory if governors of the last 10 years had appointed more black judges to the Los Angeles Superior Court?