Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

Article Title

Brett Kavanaugh vs. The Exonerated Central Park Five: Exposing the President's "Presumption of Innocence" Double Standard

Authors

Sofia Yakren

Abstract

(Excerpt)

In the service of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the United States Supreme Court, the President of the United States (and Republican Senators) both misappropriated and further eroded the already compromised concepts of due process and presumption of innocence. This Essay uses the prominent “Central Park Five” case in which five teenagers of color were wrongly convicted of a white woman’s widely-publicized beating and rape to expose the President’s disparate use of the presumption along race and status lines. This narrative is consistent with larger systemic inequities that leave poor black and brown criminal defendants less likely to benefit from the presumption of innocence than their white counterparts.