May 13, 1996
Court 'Hears No Evil, Sees No Evil, Speaks No Evil,' Sets Impossible Standard for Claims of Race-Based Selective Prosecution
Washington, DC, May 13, 1996 -- "Eight members of the Court 'hear no evil, see no evil, and speak
no evil' of the government," declared William B. Moffitt, Treasurer of the National Association of
Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), today in response to the Supreme Court's anxiously-awaited
ruling in Armstrong v. U.S. "They are deaf to the cries of African Americans for racial justice in the
enforcement of our criminal laws," he said.
Moffitt, a prominent Alexandria, Virginia, criminal defense lawyer, criticized today's ruling as
unrealistic.
"This majority would require indigent criminal defendants and their public defender attorneys to
somehow undertake sophisticated statistical studies in order to raise a claim of selective
prosecution," Moffitt said. "If they could do that, they wouldn't need the government to disclose the
wealth of information it has in its possession."
"Sworn statements of people with first-hand knowledge that white defendants are getting easier
treatment are brushed aside as insignificant," he noted.
"Anyone looking to the Supreme Court to inject logic into our system will be sorely disappointed,"
Moffitt commented. "As 'evidence' that crack crimes are mostly committed by African Americans,
today's decision cited statistics showing 90% of those convicted are Black," he said. "Doesn't that
sort of beg the question of whether Blacks are being selectively prosecuted?"
NACDL filed an amicus curiae brief in the Armstrong case and fights in courts and Congress for
elimination of racially discriminatory sentences for crack cocaine offenses. Moffitt is the author of
a major appellate brief challenging those sentences.
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National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)