TELL ME A STORY By: Andre O. Johnson
Knox County Publice Defender’s Community Law Office
MY CALLING TO SERVE AS A JUSTICE ADVOCATE I aspired to become a criminal defense attorney at a very young age. I acted upon these aspirations by pursuing a double major in history and linguistics at the University of the West Indies, Mona in Jamaica, and attaining a Bachelor of Laws at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados. During these academic tenures, I wanted to engage in private practice and eventually open my own firm. These aspirations changed when I began the Master of Laws program at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, Long Island, NY. At Hofstra, I became more concerned about the disparities in treatment and outcomes of indigent defendants in the criminal legal system than my ambitions to engage in private practice. While private practice was a scintillating prospect at the time, my passion grew intensely for representing people who were disempowered in the criminal legal system. Indigent defendants are disadvantaged at various stages of criminal legal process. I wanted to play, even if a small role, in providing indigent defendants a fair, transparent, and thorough judicial representation. My passion for assisting indigent defendants comes from my own upbringing. I grew up in what I describe as a dichotomy— a family structure that reflects the classist divide of wealth and power commingling at the crossroad of poverty, family lineage, and educational status. I attribute my success to my struggling single mother who instilled education as a necessity for my future. Without education, I would not be where I am at today. My mother underscored that education was not an option, but a necessity. Like indigent defendants, I was raised in a world that I did not quite understand. I was systemically placed in a socio-economic class that obstructed opportunities to achieve upward mobility. I endured institutional and persistent discrimination. I vowed to my mother that I would make a difference in the lives of people considered less fortunate. I knew that I could most tangibly make this difference in the legal system, not just from being an attorney but a justice advocate. My first opportunity to advocate for indigent and marginalized individuals happened after I was elected as the first National Youth President of the Jamaica Red Cross. As National Youth President, I was able to meet and interact with individuals from different socioeconomic backgrounds. The Red Cross opened my eyes to the plight of individuals who were shunned, stigmatized, and abused by their families and community members because they were HIV positive, physically disabled or had a mental illness. The stories were gut-wrenching. It immediately dawned on me that I needed to use my platform to advocate for these individuals. To commence my activism, my team and I developed and implemented social awareness projects on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). We conducted workshops and seminars on de-stigmatization and sensitization awareness of the virus. We also implemented educational programs about safe sex practices. These programs educated community members about the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS. My second experience in advocacy occurred during my 2018 summer internship at Nassau Legal Aid Society (Hempstead, NY), an office that caters to predominantly urban Black and Hispanic populations. During my tenure at NLAS, I advocated for educating marginalized individuals of their rights during and after an arrest, search, and seizure. This type of education was relevant to the population that NLAS served, as majority of people that came through the court system were people of November 2021
color. Most of these individuals did not understand their constitutional guarantees. I saw the disparities in sentences meted out to minoritized individuals accused of similar crimes to their white peers. I also know from studies that Black and Hispanic men comprise the majority of accused in Nassau County District Court. The extant literature shows that Black and Hispanic males in Nassau County are often more likely to be stopped, searched, and arrested than their white peers. The issue of racial injustices and disparities in our criminal justice system should be concerning to all those involved in the criminal legal system. This disparity is neither accidental nor recent, but rather a manifestation of the most entrenched and vile system of oppression. A system that has treated and subjugated people of color to a lower standard of value than their white counterparts. I can recall an experience in spring 2018 while working as a part of The Law Reform Advocacy Clinic at Hofstra University. My client, a 39-year-old woman from South America who suffers from epilepsy, was physically and emotionally abused by members of the New York City Police Department while participating in an Occupy Wall Street Protest. Even though this was a civil matter, I felt very passionate about representing my client because of her indigent status. I watched video evidence that showed people of color being brutalized by police officers. I can also attest to my experiences of discrimination. I recall, distinctly, an occasion in court in Nassau County, when a court officer asked me demandingly if my case (assuming I am the accused) had been called. I explained to her that I was a legal intern, not the accused. The next day, the same court officer physically assaulted me when she shoved me out of the well of the court and declared in a loud demeaning voice that defendants were not allowed in the well of the court. During both interactions, I was dressed formally, in a suit, for court and had my briefcase and case files in my hands. I can only assume that the court officer treated me in that manner because I am an African American male. She had an implicit bias of me as a defendant, and not as a lawyer. She may have been used to seeing black males as defendants in the court, and few being attorneys, which subconsciously caused her to err in her assumption about me twice. This experience is not uncommon for attorneys of color in the legal system. Also, it was not my only experience of being discriminated against. In April 2020, I went to the Roger D. Wilson Detention Facility to visit a client. A Knox County Sheriff Officer asked me if I was there to turn myself in. Attorneys of color must interact and navigate a legal system wrought with prejudices and discrimination. Despite my qualifications as a criminal defense lawyer, my formal attire, and professional demeanor, I was [and am] still treated as an offender. It is important to bring this point across to reinforce the systemic biases that exists for indigent defendants and the attorneys that serve them. My goal as a public defender is to bring real awareness to systemic racial injustice in the legal system and cumulative disadvantages that engender and perpetuates systemic discrimination against the poor, women, and people of color. Marginalized populations should have access to justice and to equal and quality legal representation. Being a public defender grants me the opportunity to fight for the rights of indigent accused and to use my voice to advocate for structural changes in our legal system.
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