The Training Division is pleased to announce that a newly-recorded presentation, How Critical Race Theory Improves Drug Courier And 8 U.S.C. § 1326 Representation, has just been released and is available for viewing on http://www.fd.org.
This presentation is being released at a time of widespread and prolonged protests in response to repeated and systemic police brutality, racial oppression, and the killings of individuals like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown, to name just a few. These mass demonstrations, set against the backdrop of an ongoing pandemic that disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minority groups, are sobering reminders of the systemic structures that support racial inequities and injustices, and the need for increased training so that we may better serve those in our care. We must look afresh at what we are doing, or failing to do, to root out conscious and unconscious bias in our communities, courtrooms, detention facilities, and our offices, to create a place where everyone is treated fairly and equally. We must also look afresh at how we can convey that information effectively in the courtroom.
This important video presentation discusses how criminal defense lawyers can understand illegal entry and drug courier prosecutions through the lens of critical race theory (CRT). It equips lawyers with tools to more effectively represent 1326 and drug courier clients. The presentation begins with how some of CRT’s theoretical underpinnings apply to illegal entry and drug courier cases. The presenter analyzes topics such as revisionist historical perspectives, intersectionality, and racial stratification, among others. He describes how these concepts apply to practice and discusses a CRT-based approach to representation at initial appearance, bail hearings, preliminary hearings, disclosure review, voir dire, opening statement, and closing argument.