For the past eight years, President Clinton has been submitting the names of black lawyers in nomination to become a judge of the Fourth Circuit. All of these nominations have been rejected. The court has had four vacancies since Judge Sam Ervin died, but none of these vacancies have been filled. Fourth Circuit Chief Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III has testified and written that appellate courts work better when they are smaller. Its pending caseload dropped 22 percent between 1996 and 1999, while the national total rose 9 percent.
Critics say that efficiency comes at a price.
While it is understandable that the Fourth Circuit would reduce its case load by sending more black men to their deaths in the electric chair without any kind of hearing at all, I feel that since my daughter is half-white they should at least give her half of a hearing. Although the kidnappers should have been arrested on the spot, they have been protected from criminal prosecution by the judges of the Fourth Circuit, including Judge James E. Turk of the Western District of Virginia, and the kidnappers have been allowed to keep the child they kidnapped. I filed six appeals to the fourth circuit. All were dismissed without any hearing at all and without even the filing of briefs and oral argument. The parties were not allowed to file briefs and oral argument was not allowed either.