Judge Dale Cathell, who currently serves on the Maryland Court of Appeals, concluded the All Politics Is Local series this week, speaking on racial equality in the criminal justice system.
A chairman of the Maryland Judiciary Committee's Commission on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Judicial Process, Cathell examined the perceptions and realities of race as a factor in legal proceedings and sentencing.
According to Cathell, the Commission's purpose was to address many of the lingering questions regarding what role race and socio-economics have in the courts. A sample pool of one million cases was used for this study, which was performed through a random mailing list to which questionnaires were sent.
"Forty percent answered affirmative and 60 percent answered negative when asked, 'Are courts impartial to race and economics?,'" Cathell said. "A lot of problems come from economics; the lower the economics, the more distrustful they are of the courts."
Based on the overall response to the questionnaire, the Commission concluded that whites tended to find the judicial process to be fair, whereas minorities, such as African Americans, felt the opposite.
The study also found that one's socio-economic status often played an enormous role in a person's perceptions about the judicial process.
The affluent are more likely to trust the courts. On the other hand, if a defendant is poor, he has less confidence in the court system.
"Minorities and those who made $18,000 or less believed affluent whites had better treatment," Cathell said.
However, though affluent whites were more likely to trust the court systems than poor minorities, they too felt discriminated against.
"[Some] whites believed they were treated unfairly because they were white and affluent," Cathell said. He added that many whites felt judges would be more understanding of minorities or the poor.
Cathell asserted that often these negative perceptions are based upon erroneous associations. For example, 46 percent of minorities and 33 percent of whites considered the police departments to be a part of the court system. Past negative experiences with the police department often "[taint perceptions] about the fairness of the court system."
Though he maintained that the courts have an obligation to issue impartial rulings, Cathell contended that justice and fairness are not necessarily synonymous. He reasoned, "If justice is unfair, it is only a reflection that life is not fair."
