SUNNY HOSTIN partially credits her upbringing with her path in life. She grew up in a working- class family in the South Bronx, the child of a Puerto Rican mother and African American father. She had family members and friends who sold drugs or were involved in other types of crime as well as family and friends who lived on the right side of the law. But, her mother and father instilled her with good values regarding educa- tion, hard work, and success. In fact, Hostin says her parents were also her greatest role models. Through their own hard work—her mother got her degree after eight years of part-time college and her father became a senior staffer at the Lorillard Tobacco Company after computer programming classes—they moved the family from the South Bronx to Manhattan. Hostin attended college at Binghamton University, where she received her undergraduate degree in communications before earning her law degree at Notre Dame. She even- tually became a federal prosecutor.
At the U.S. Department of Justice, Hostin pros- ecuted child-sex predators and worked with child sex abuse victims. In 2007, she joined CNN as the legal analyst for “American Morning,” where she created, wrote, and produced her popular weekly segment, “Sunny’s Law,” which answered viewer questions on various legal issues. Before joining CNN, Hostin could be seen on the Fox News Chan- nel, where she appeared weekly on The O’Reilly Factor’s “Is It Legal?” segment.
When asked why she chose to become a prosecu- tor instead of a defense attorney, she responded: “My parents taught me the difference between right and wrong and that regardless of your cir- cumstances, there is no reason to break the law.”
about how and why the system works the way it does. It’s true that we as spectators fi nd trials fascinating, but
our relationship to the legal system is not simply voy- euristic. An informed and engaged public is critical to the sustainability of a strong and eff ective democracy based on adherence to the law. In colonial times, people went to the public square to hear the news of the day. Now we live in a global village where media plays an ever larger role in fostering public engagement and trust in our system of government and the rule of law. It is hardly a perfect sys-
HOSTIN IS A FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR.
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tem and we can always work toward making it better, but as Ryan Smith puts it: “It is the system that we’ve chosen and it is a pretty good one.” Hostin, Smith, and Lithwick take their part in maintaining
public trust in media and the law seriously. T ey stake their credibility, integrity, and reputations on it every day. D&B
ORY TOWER OF ACADEMIA AND ARE WRITING LEGAL BLOGS.” – DAHLIA LITHWICK
MCCA.COM JULY/AUGUST 2012 DIVERSITY & THE BAR®
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