Citation

Gómez LE. Law Soc. Rev. 2000; 34(4): 1129-1202.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Law and Society Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.2307/3115133

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A striking feature of the historical American criminal justice system has been the exclusion of racial minorities from decision-making positions, such as juror. In this study of criminal justice in a New Mexico county in the late 19th century, however, Mexicans are the vast majority of petit jurors, and frequently they decide the fates of European-American defendants. A regime of racial power-sharing between Mexicans and European-Americans characterized the administration of the criminal justice system. Racial power-sharing served the ends of American colonizers in legitimizing their governance after an initial violent occupation. Perhaps more surprisingly, it also served the ends of both elites and middle status Mexicans, at least some of the time. Criminal law-and, particularly, the jury as an institution-served both the colonizers and the colonized in this context.