Language and the Law

Quadruple murder suspect Terrell Young, who is 19 and black, has asked that a Nevada court replace his public defender on the grounds that the lawyer could not understand his speech.

His prospective substitute attorneys, Benjamin Childs and Terence Dickenson--both of whom are white--contend that Young speaks “African American English instead of standard American English” and therefore is constitutionally entitled to a lawyer with whom he can communicate. RACHEL FISCHER spoke with Childs and a widely known language professor about the issue.

*

BENJAMIN CHILDS

Lawyer, Las Vegas

We are not saying we’re the only ones who can communicate with Terrell Young, but the research (from the Institute of Social Research at the University of Michigan) says that the black family evolves differently. This is not Ebonics--taking the tack that there’s a genetic proclivity to having a different language. This is a dialect--what our research calls African American English vs. standard American English. Terrell told us that the court-appointed attorney could not understand what he was trying to say. The public defender was under the impression that Terrell did understand him. Terrell made statements that the police and district attorney immediately called confessions. All I can say is: They were not confessions and his statements were obtained under duress. Terrell does not even understand the term “duress.”

It takes a little more time to understand a kid like Terrell. You have to be aware that there is a different dialect. My co-counsel has worked with the African American population in Detroit. Right now, the court has appointed other attorneys, so we are officially not on the case. We’re being retained by the aunt, so we’ll keep trying. The judge said that it isn’t necessary to hire private attorneys, but that decision is going to come back to haunt him years down the road on appeal. It’s going to become apparent that this guy was not understood.

This is a capital crime and the defendant not being understood will not be effective for anybody. The defendant, who is a high school graduate, simply speaks a different dialect. The judge thinks this is a racial issue. It’s not; it’s linguistics. An example of how Terrell talks would be, “All greens and no meat,” meaning a lot of stuff but no substance. Does everyone understand that? And consider that we’re talking about Nevada, where the population is less than 3% African American.

If you are going to have justice in this country, you have to have the right to a fair trial. Both of us are white, true, but we are able to communicate with Terrell; maybe it’s just because we recognize there is a cultural difference. The research recognizes that there is a different communication system based on culture and environment, but there’s a great resistance to that here in Nevada.

Terrell is just 19 and has no idea how the criminal justice system works. One thing, for instance, that scares him is the idea of death; maybe that’s common among African American males. It’s an example of how different communication may need to be used: If an attorney comes in and says to Terrell, “They’re talking about the death penalty,” you might as well forget about it. Establish a personal relationship with a client and this dialect is just another hurdle to get over.