Limited attorney quality inflates conviction rates and sentences for minorities

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)

We found that Black and Hispanic defendants were more likely than White defendants to be detained, to receive a custodial plea offer, and to be incarcerated, and they received especially punitive outcomes for person offenses (Kutateladze et al., 2014). However, Black and Hispanic defendants were also more likely than their similarly situated White counterparts to have their case dismissed. These findings raised the question of “whether having higher dismissal rates for defendants of color is an indicator of leniency or whether they might simply serve as a mechanism for declining to prosecute cases whose viability is in doubt or that could have been rejected at screening” (Kutateladze, Tymas, & Crowley, 2014, p. 5). — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 567 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Higher dismissal rates for minority defendants may mask prosecutorial screening rather than signal leniency — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 567; Attorney type outweighs race in predicting detention and sentencing outcomes — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 569; Criminal defense attorneys are overlooked as contributors to racial bias in sentencing — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 664 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Attorney type outweighs race in predicting detention and sentencing outcomes #complicates (0.82) — 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)
• Higher dismissal rates for minority defendants may mask prosecutorial screening rather than signal leniency #complicates (0.74) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 567