Jim Crow’s Last Stand

Order Description
Essay Prompt:
By the time you write this essay you will have read Tom Aiello’s book Jim Crow’s Last Stand: Nonunanimous Criminal Jury Verdicts in Louisiana. You are to write an essay of approximately 5 pages that responds to the following prompts (in whatever order you choose) using evidence from Aiello’s book ONLY.

1. Explain the origins of the non-unanimous system in Louisiana. When was it first enshrined in law? When did it become a part of the state constitution? How does Aiello suggest the immediate historical context contributed to these events?

2. Describe the state’s post-Civil War convict lease system. Be sure to include mention of who dominated it, how it was configured as a labor system (i.e. what kinds of labor were convicts most likely to do?), and what kind of impact it had on levels of arrest and incarceration in the state.

3. What does answering the two questions above lead you to conclude about the relative import of the phrasing from the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution copied below?

“Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

4. Although Aiello reviews numerous challenges to nonunanimous jury verdicts in the twentieth century, he focuses on the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Johnson v. Louisiana and Apodaca v. Oregon. In practical terms, what did the decisions in these cases mean for criminal defendants in these two states?

5. In his dissent to the majority ruling in Johnson, Justice Stephen Douglas wrote that civil rights “extend of course to everyone, but in cold reality touch mostly the lower castes in our society” (45). What did he mean or what did his observation suggest about how the nonunanimous jury standard actually worked in practical terms?

6. Although other states could have used the rulings in Johnson and Apodaca to adopt nonunanimous jury standards, they chose not to. How does Aiello explain this?

7. One blurb on the back cover of the hard copy edition of the book reads, if “there are any lingering doubts that Louisiana’s [contemporary] incarceration rate is a vestige of slavery and perpetuated by Jim Crow, this book dispels them.” What does this quote mean? Do you agree with it or not? Explain why or why not.
Using Direct Quotations:
In writing this essay you may use a small number of brief quotations from the book. However, the bulk of the answer should be written by you and in your own words.

When and if you do use direct quotes (any more than four significant words in a row drawn from the text), indicate that you have done so by placing quotation marks around the entire quote and follow that with the page number from which the quote was drawn.

Example:
“In 2005, for example, Louisiana incarcerated 523 white people and 2,452 black people per 100,000 a differential of roughly 4.7 to 1” (62).

Formatting Instructions:

• The essays should be approximately five (5) pages in length.

• Those pages should be computer generated using a one-inch margin on each side of the page, using 12-point type (preferably Times New Roman), and the text should be double-spaced.

• Place a page number on each page in the lower right-hand corner and staple your submission together.

This is the rubric we will use to evaluate your essays:

Substantive Content:
1. How well does the student respond to Prompt 1? 1 2 3 4 5

2. How well does the student respond to Prompt 2? 1 2 3 4 5

3. How well does the student respond to Prompt 3? 1 2 3 4 5
4. How well does the student respond to Prompt 4? 1 2 3 4 5

5. How well does the student respond to Prompt 5? 1 2 3 4 5
6. How well does the student respond to Prompt 6? 1 2 3 4 5

7. How well does the student respond to Prompt 7? 1 2 3 4 5

8. Does the essay suggest a close and careful reading of Aiello’s book? 1 2 3 4 5

9. How effective and thoughtful are the responses overall? 1 2 3 4 5

Style & Grammar:
10. How well written is the essay? 1 2 3 4 5