Systemic racism and racial bias are powerful factors in our criminal justice system. Disparities are consistently documented at every stage of the process — from policing to re-entering society after being incarcerated. But I want to focus right now on how race plays a role in the pretrial process.
It starts with this: If you’re held in pretrial detention, your likelihood of pleading guilty and being convicted increases. Studies have consistently found racial disparities in the use of pretrial detention, as well as harsher treatment of Black and Latinx defendants throughout the pretrial phase.1
We know that innocent people are often incentivized to plead guilty through offers of shorter sentences, and the data demonstrates that the risks of wrongful conviction inherent in this incentive structure are disproportionately borne by Black and Latinx defendants.
Prosecutorial decision-making can also be affected by racial bias. In fact, race influences disparate charging decisions made by prosecutors and is often used as a proxy for dangerousness and potential recidivism by judges during the pretrial process.2
Put simply, racism and racial bias infects every stage of the criminal process. The case of the Exonerated 5 exemplifies how Black and Latinx people are perceived and treated; the victim of the brutal attack in Central Park in 1989 was referred to as the “wolfpack’s prey” on the cover of the New York Daily News. Innocence Project Board Member Yusef Salaam and the other four members of the Exonerated 5 were presumed guilty from the start. After hours of interrogations, some were coerced — through police deception and other disturbing interrogation methods — into confessing to the horrible crime which they did not commit.
Just a few years ago, I had the honor of collaborating with Yusef and other members of the Exonerated Five to pass a law to mandate the recording of interrogations here in New York. Together, we are now working to pass a law in New York that would ban the use of police deception during interrogations.
There’s deep-rooted racism in our justice system that enables unjust outcomes for Black and Latinx people. And here at the Innocence Project, we must continue the work to help root out systemic racism at every stage of our justice system.
We’re going to keep working across the country on reforms like repealing 50-A in New York, which now makes police misconduct records public. This is a fundamental reform to bring accountability to law enforcement who engage in misconduct. Without access to disciplinary records, little will change and wrongful convictions will follow.
Dobbie, Goldin, and Yang, 2016; Eaglin and Solomon, 2015; Sutton, 2013; Schlesinger, 2005, 2007; Freiburger, Marcum, and Pierce, 2009; Free, 2002.
Arnold, Dobbie, and Yang, 2018; Berdejo, 2018; Rachlinski, Johnson, Wistrich, and Guthrie, 2009; Casey, Warren Cheesmand, and Eleck, 2013; Sommers and Marotta, 2014.
The Innocence Project exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. www.innocenceproject.org
