Race, colonialism, and criminal law: Mexicans and the American criminal justice system in territorial New Mexico

A striking feature of the historical American criminal justice system has b een 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 re gime of racial power-sharing between Mexicans and European-Americans charac terized the administration of the criminal justice system. Racial power-sha ring served the ends of American colonizers in legitimizing their governanc e after an initial violent occupation. Perhaps more surprisingly, it also s erved 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.