Archives for November 2016

Racial disparities appear to persist in the American legal system, despite the attempts to make the judiciary more reflective of the general population, a Harvard study reports.

The 2015 study examined how higher-court judges evaluated opinions written by approximately 1,500 federal district minority judges between 2000 and 2012.

The study shows that if Black judges’ cases were reversed at  Whites’ comparably lower reversal rates, some 2,800 cases authored by Black judges would have been upheld on appeal over the last 12 years.

Author of the study was Maya Sen, assistant professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Sen’s study shows that Black judges vote differently than White judges on various issues. Because most appellate panels are composed of judges who are all White, losing litigants in such cases have some incentive to appeal and secure a reversal, her study shows.

That being the case, it would not be surprising that Black lower-court judges have cases appealed at higher rates and then are also more likely to have those cases reversed — particularly if reviewed by White appeals judges without the same political or legal inclinations.

“Black lower-court judges are more likely than White judges to be awarded lower qualification ratings by the ABA…”

A second possibility is that practicing attorneys are known to have lower opinions of minority judges. These attorneys view Black judges’ opinions with more skepticism and may be more inclined to appeal.

In Sen’s study, court opinions written by Blacks, particularly those on civil rights issues, will more likely be appealed than those written by White judges. In her assessment, such a difference may suggest that discrepancies in reversal rates stem more from the nature of cases appealed than any bias on the part of appeals panels.

According to Sen’s study, “There are two further explanations, both of which raise troubling normative implications under the assumption that reversal is costly. The first is that Black judges could possibly bring with them different qualifications and professional experiences that result in decisions that are more likely to be overturned.

“Black lower-court judges are more likely than White judges to be awarded lower qualification ratings by the ABA; in addition, a lively scholarly debate has addressed the relative successes of Black versus White graduates of elite law schools.”

Her study found that “educational opportunities and professional experiences translated into some Black judges arriving to the bench with qualitatively different experiences than White judges.”

Locking up the mentally ill in jails and prisons is a growing problem in California, a Los Angeles Times story reports.

About 37 percent of the state’s inmates are mentally ill, said a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The spokesman noted that most of the patients have lower-level conditions that do not require inpatient or enhanced outpatient treatment.

“64% of California’s jail population is awaiting trial or sentencing as of December 2016.” Most remain in pretrial custody because they cannot afford bail.  Jail Profile Survey, http://www.bscc.ca.gov/

The article stated 32,525 state prisoners were classified as mentally ill in April 2013. The overall inmate population fell by 5,230 by February, but the mentally ill population grew by 4,275.

“The use of the jail as a mental health ward is inefficient, ineffective and in many cases it is inhumane,” Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey told county supervisors in July 2014.

The newspaper reported the number of acute psychiatric beds available in hospitals statewide decreased by 2,700 – or nearly 30 percent—from 1995 to 2013, according to the California Hospital Association.

The LA Times illustrated the problem with the case of Reginald Murray, who spent time in prison before finally gaining admission to a mental hospital.

“Everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” said Murray’s attorney, Mieke ter Poorten.

After two years of decreases, the murder rate in California rose from 4.4 to 4.8 per 100,000 in 2015. There were 1,861 homicides in a year. This number represents a 9.7 percent increase from the 1,697 homicides in 2014. This still is a 25.1 percent decrease from 2,483 reported in 2006, according to a Department of Justice 2015 Homicide report.

In 2015, 14 individuals were sentenced to Death Row. Thirteen were males, and one was female. Eight were Hispanics, three Blacks, one White, and two were categorized as other. According to the report, “One was under the age of 20 at the time of arrest; two were over 40. The majority (85.7 percent) were sentenced from Southern California counties with over half (eight) coming from Riverside County.”

Among California’s 35 counties with populations of 100,000 or more, Monterey County experienced the highest murder rate (13.8 per 100,000) in 2015. The lowest rate (1.1 per 100,000) was recorded by Imperial, Placer and San Luis Obispo, the report revealed.

The majority of murder victims were Hispanic males, age 18-29-years old. A large number of male victims (46 percent) were killed on the street or sidewalk. Over half (51.7 percent) of the females were killed in their residences.

The largest percentages of accused murderers were Hispanic. More than 89 percent of arrestees were male, and 10.8 percent were female. Nearly 48 percent were Hispanics, 26.1 percent were Black, 20.8 percent were White, and 5.6 percent were categorized as other. Of those arrested,  53.4 percent of homicide arrestees were aged 18-29, 21.8 percent were aged 30-39, 18.8 percent were 40 years-of-age or older, and 6.1 percent were under the age of 18. 

In another Department of Justice report, the 2015 Hate Crime report found race/ethnicity/national origin bias accounted for 51.1 percent of all hate crimes. Anti-Black bias motivation continues to be the most common hate crime, accounting for 31.9 percent (3,443) of all hate crime events since 2006 (10,784).

Sexual orientation biases crimes are the second most common type committed over the past 10 years (2006-2015); they accounted for 22.5 percent of hate crimes reported. Within this category, crimes with an anti-gay and anti-homosexual motivation have consistently been the most common bias sub-types. Together, they account for 87.2 percent (2,081)  of all hate crimes since 2006 (2,386).

Hate crimes with a religious bias are the third most common type over the past 10 years (2006-2015), according to this  report. These numbers decreased 35.9 percent from 1,306 in 2006 to 837 in 2015.

“The religious bias type accounted for 22.7 percent of all hate crimes reported in 2015. Within this category, hate crimes with an anti-Jewish motivation continue to be the most common, accounting for 11.2 percent (1,205) of all hate events reported since 2006 (10,784),” the report revealed.

Finally, the 2015 homicide report shows the total number of reported citizens’ complaints against peace officers decreased from 15,693 in 2014 to 14,402 in 2015; it’s the lowest since 1988. However, the total number of law enforcement officers assaulted in the line of duty increased from 8,998 in 2014 to 9,924 in 2015.