1. Race, Class, & the Pretrial Context:Study Questions • According to recent scholarship on bail, pretrial release, and plea bargaining, how does race and ethnicity matter? (Gabbidon and Green pp. 150-152; 154-155) • According to the U.S. Supreme Court the jury is, “the criminal defendant’s fundamental protection of life and liberty against race and color prejudice,” yet, why does David Cole (pp.101-126) that racial discrimination in jury selection remain a reality today?

2. Race, Class, & Sentencing:Study Questions • Why did the Supreme Court rule against Warren McCleskey’s claim of racial discrimination in the imposition of his death sentence? How does Wilburn Dobbs’s case demonstrate how difficult it is for capital defendants’ to meet the standard the Court imposed in McCleskey? (Cole pp.134-137) • Why does David Cole conclude that the McCleskey decision extends beyond the criminal justice system itself and into questions concerning the limits of “obtaining judicial relief” for racial inequality? (Cole pp.137-141) • What were the major findings of the U.S. Sentencing Commision’s Report “Cocaine and Federal Sentencing Policy”? (Gabbidon and Green pp.188-189) • How did the Georgia Supreme Court echo the Supreme Court’s McCleskey ruling when it upheld the state’s “Two strikes and you’re out” drug sentencing policy?

3. Race, Class, and the Politics of Sentencing:Study Questions http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/brownvboard.pdf • Why did the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 result in a dramatic punitive turn in American criminal justice? (Gabbidon and Green pp.171-175)

4. Race, Class, & Crack Sentencing:Discussion Question • Why is possession of crack cocaine punished 100 times more severely than possession of powder cocaine? Do you agree with this law? • No qualitative differences between the drugs • Poor blacks are overwhelmingly prosecuted • 11 of 21 Black Congressmen voted in favor of the 100-1 crack-powder differential