[Marxism] Bruce Wright

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times, March 26, 2005
Bruce McM. Wright, Erudite Judge Whose Bail Rulings Caused an Uproar, Dies
at 86
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN

Bruce McM. Wright, a retired black judge in Manhattan who denounced what he
called racism in the criminal justice system and created a furor in the
1970's by setting low bail for many poor and minority suspects, died in his
sleep on Thursday at his home in Old Saybrook, Conn. He was 86.

His death was announced by his wife, Elizabeth Davidson-Wright. Justice
Wright, who retired at the end of 1994 from State Supreme Court, suffered a
heart attack in March 2000.

Justice Wright spent 25 years on the bench in both criminal and civil
cases, gaining a reputation as a scholarly and provocative jurist who
sprinkled his opinions with literary quotations.

But it was in Criminal Court early in his judicial career that he found
himself at the center of a storm over his out-of-court remarks and bail
policies, which had the effect of releasing many suspects, some of them
charged with vicious attacks on police officers.

"Turn 'Em Loose Bruce" was the sobriquet supplied by the Patrolmen's
Benevolent Association, which called him "the best friend criminals ever
had." At various times, Mayor John V. Lindsay, who appointed him to the
bench in 1970, as well as Mayors Abraham D. Beame and Edward I. Koch and
many other politicians, joined the chorus of denunciations.

But civil libertarians, Legal Aid lawyers and others defended Judge
Wright's use of bail as appropriate in the context of its statutory and
traditional purpose: to assure the presence at trial of a defendant, who is
presumed innocent until proven guilty.

In setting bail, judges typically weigh a defendant's character,
employment, finances and community roots. Also considered are any criminal
record, possible danger to the community, the seriousness of the charges
and the probable sentence that a conviction would carry, which, if severe
enough, might raise the possibility of flight to avoid prosecution.

While no records were kept on the bail practices of judges, Judge Wright's
were not very different from those of his colleagues, lawyers familiar with
the courts at the time said, but his decisions were monitored more closely
by the police and reporters.

Judge Wright insisted that bail should not be used punitively, to detain
people for the sake of crime prevention or to coerce guilty pleas. He said
his aim was to uphold the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which says
"excessive bail shall not be required." For some poor people, he contended,
$50 could be excessive.

Judge Wright also drew angry responses with out-of-court speeches asserting
that white judges often did not treat black defendants fairly and that the
acquittal of white officers by white juries had given the police "a license
to hunt down blacks and kill them with impunity."

While opponents called those remarks intemperate for a judge, many black
and Hispanic New Yorkers regarded him as a compassionate counterweight to
an overwhelmingly white justice system. In the mid-1970's, only 2 to 3
percent of America's judges were black. The City Bar Association,
meanwhile, called his performance on the bench "decidedly better than average."

Judge Wright's perceptions were shaped by his own experiences with racism.
He had been a distinguished student, but was turned away from Princeton; he
had been a decorated soldier in World War II, but had to serve in
segregated units; he had worked for a major New York law firm, but said he
was told that he could not hope to become a partner.

A tall, trim man with angular features and an athlete's confident bearing,
he was an amateur painter, an avid reader and the author of three published
volumes of poetry. He also wrote "Black Robes, White Justice" (Lyle Stuart,
1987), about race and the judiciary.

Bruce McMarion Wright was born on Dec. 19, 1918, in Princeton, N.J. His
father was a baker. He was an excellent student and applied to Princeton,
but was dissuaded by an admissions official, who wrote him saying that the
school did not discriminate but had "no colored students" and advised him
that "a member of your race might feel very much alone."

Sixty-five years later, the Princeton graduating class of 2001 made Judge
Wright an honorary member.

In 1936, the young man enrolled at Virginia State, a black college, but was
expelled for a prank: changing a headline in a student newspaper from
"Religion Week" to "Religion Weak." He attended Lincoln University, a
predominantly black school in Pennsylvania, and after graduation in 1942
entered the Army.

He served in a segregated medical unit and was in the third wave of the
Normandy invasion in 1944. He won two Purple Hearts and two Bronze Stars.

In 1946, he enrolled at New York Law School, taking classes at night while
working at odd jobs. In his last year, he was a clerk with the prominent
firm of Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn. After passing the bar exam in
1950, he asked about his prospects. As he recalled it years later, he was
told that there could be no future for him there. A senior partner later
voiced doubt that any member would make such a statement.

Over the next 17 years, Judge Wright practiced law in New York with a
number of black firms. In 1967, he was named counsel to the city's Human
Resources Administration, and three years later was named to the Criminal
Court bench by Mayor Lindsay.

The judge's bail policies soon became controversial. There was an uproar in
1972, when he twice released on $500 bail a man accused of killing a police
officer. Another judge raised the bail to $25,000. The suspect was later
convicted of assault and robbery but acquitted of murder. In 1974, Judge
Wright released a man accused of kidnapping, rape and the attempted murder
of a police officer.

After repeated protests by the police union, Judge Wright was transferred
to Civil Court in 1974 by the city's administrative judge, who denied that
the move had anything to do with his bail policies. Judge Wright sued in
federal court, seeking reinstatement to Criminal Court. In 1978, as
hearings were about to begin, he was transferred back to Criminal Court.

The bail controversy resumed, and the protests rose to a peak in April
1979, when Judge Wright released without bail a black man charged with
slashing the throat of a white decoy officer, Robert Bilodeau.

Judge Wright noted that the suspect, Jerome Singleton, had no criminal
record and had a family and other community ties. He also said prosecutors
had offered no compelling reason to ban Mr. Singleton's release. In two
trials, Mr. Singleton was found not guilty of attempted murder but was
convicted of second-degree assault.

With little hope that Mayor Koch, a harsh critic, would reappoint him when
his 10-year term expired, Judge Wright ran successfully for Civil Court
judge in 1979, and was elected a justice of the State Supreme Court in
1982. He served in the court's civil branch for 12 relatively quiet years,
until his retirement on Dec. 31, 1994.

But his opinions, especially about race, remained provocative.

"I have never changed my mind about the Eighth Amendment," he said a few
days before retiring. "To say that I would've done things differently means
to me I would have been a good boy, kept my mouth shut and availed myself
of the benefits of the system. I don't think I can do that. I don't think I
could ever do that."

Besides his wife, Judge Wright's survivors include a brother, Robert, of
Willingboro, N.J.; five sons from previous marriages: Geoffrey, a civil
court judge in Manhattan, Keith L., a Democratic state assemblyman from
Harlem, Alexis, of Chicago, Bruce, of Washington, and Patrick, of Harlem; a
daughter, Tiffany, of Brooklyn; and two grandsons.

Louis Proyect
Marxism list: www.marxmail.org


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