- Aug 3, 2012
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Some good research here from the Sarasota Herald Tribune regarding persistent disparities in criminal sentencing in Florida, despite the legislature's attempts to implement systems that would counter judicial and prosecutorial bias.
TL;DR:
Some justices imposes sentences on black defendants upwards of 2x as long as those they impose on whites, when controlling for other factors.
Black justices tend to be more fair than whites.
Female justices tend to be more fair than men.
Black male justices tend to be the most lenient.
Black female justices tend to be the harshest, but easily the most even/fair.
Bias on the Bench | Sarasota Herald-Tribune Media Group | Sentencing
TL;DR:
Some justices imposes sentences on black defendants upwards of 2x as long as those they impose on whites, when controlling for other factors.
Black justices tend to be more fair than whites.
Female justices tend to be more fair than men.
Black male justices tend to be the most lenient.
Black female justices tend to be the harshest, but easily the most even/fair.
Bias on the Bench | Sarasota Herald-Tribune Media Group | Sentencing
Justice has never been blind when it comes to race in Florida.
Blacks were first at the mercy of slave masters. Then came Jim Crow segregation and the Ku Klux Klan.
Now, prejudice wears a black robe.
Half a century after the civil rights movement, trial judges throughout Florida sentence blacks to harsher punishment than whites, a Herald-Tribune investigation found.
They offer blacks fewer chances to avoid jail or scrub away felonies.
They give blacks more time behind bars — sometimes double the sentences of whites accused of the same crimes under identical circumstances.
Florida lawmakers have struggled for 30 years to create a more equitable system.
Points are now used to calculate sentences based on the severity of the crime, the defendant’s prior record and a host of other factors. The idea is to punish criminals in Pensacola the same as those in Key West — no matter their race, gender or wealth.
But the point system has not stopped discrimination.