Defendants’ race reliably predicts negative case outcomes

Evidence

The study suggests that the ability to hire a private attorney minimizes one’s chance of pretrial detention and custodial sentence outcomes. Black and Hispanic defendants were much less likely to be represented by private counsel and much more likely to be represented by court-assigned defense attorneys (commonly known as 18(b) counsel), with the former showing the most favorable and the latter the least favorable outcomes for defendants. These findings become especially relevant if we consider that “defense attorney type” trumped “race/ethnicity” as a predictive factor in pretrial detention, sentence offers, and sentence outcomes. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 569 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Race and gender of defendants causally affect judicial outcomes; Racial bias in criminal case outcomes varies by decision point and offense type — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 564; Attorney type predicts outcomes more strongly than race does (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Attorney type outweighs race in predicting detention and sentencing outcomes #complicates (0.85) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 569
• Attorney type predicts outcomes more strongly than race does #complicates (0.82)
• Correlated defendant attributes, not discrimination alone, can drive apparent bias in verdicts #complicates (0.80)