Academic research on defense attorney bias lags far behind prosecution-side studies

Evidence

Finally, it is clear that there is a need for additional research on racial bias in criminal defense attorneys. We discussed just two studies on criminal defense attorneys in this chapter. Most of the other work on defense bias is, like our own, based on practical experience and on anecdotal evidence. Given the importance of defense attorneys to the criminal justice process, and given how great the stakes of unjust incarceration, we recommend additional partnerships between practitioners and scholars, ones that might cast more light on the extent of the problem and how to correct it. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 704

Categorization

• SEED: An article angle: the systematic underresearch of defense-side racial bias compared to prosecution and judicial bias, and what practitioner-scholar partnerships could uncover.