Page 9 - CLT061520

NEWS JUNE 15, 2020 ¦ 9

‘I Know You Are Tired’: Robinson
Reaches Out Amid Racial Upheaval

By Samantha Joseph, Michael Marciano

Richard Robinson is a black man.
He’s also chief justice of the Connecticut
Supreme Court—which puts him in a unique
position as groups around the world protest the lat-
est death of an unarmed black person at the hands
of police.
“I know that there are some people who do not
believe that there is racial injustice in the United
States,” Robinson wrote in a letter addressed to
members of the judicial branch. “However, as the
events in my own life, as well as events in this coun-
try throughout the years have informed me, indeed
there is.”
Robinson is Connecticut’s first black Supreme
Court chief justice. He became judge of the Con-
necticut Appellate Court in 2007, before rising to the
state Supreme Court in December 2013. He wrote
that two events have bookmarked his life, show-
ing the arch of the nation’s progress: the election of
Barack Obama as the United States’ first black presi-
Connecticut Supreme Court Chief Justice

dent, and the “torture and killing of Emmett Till,” a Richard Robinson

14-year-old boy who’s 1955 lynching in Mississippi King Jr., and his famous line: “Injustice anywhere is
galvanized a national civil rights movement. a threat to justice everywhere.”
“People who do not believe that we have a racial Robinson also said he is proud of the work being
injustice problem are entitled to their own opinions, started to address important issues, and he encour-
but they are not entitled to their own facts,” the chief aged people to keep moving forward.
justice wrote. “Simply put, the facts are with me.” “I know that I am asking a lot of you. I know that
Robinson heads Connecticut’s high court at a you are tired, you are weary and maybe even right-
time where the national and international spotlight fully disillusioned, but this is a battle for the nation’s
is on the fallout over the death of George Floyd, a soul,” Robinson wrote. “We must double and even
black man killed by police in May during an arrest triple our efforts to provide equal justice for all those
in Minneapolis. that we serve.”
“These are troubling times,” Robinson wrote in In Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont has respond-
a letter sent to employees of Connecticut’s judicial ed by creating a task force to propose reforms
system. “Our senses have been bombarded with a and increase police accountability. Meanwhile,
constant stream of scenes of horrific injustices that Connecticut U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and
have—and still are—occurring across this nation.” Chris Murphy are set to introduce a series of po-
Without mentioning Floyd’s killing, the jurist ref- lice reform bills, amid national riots and protests
erenced the late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther
¦ Continued on PAGE 10

CONNECTICUT
Law Tribune