The New York Times reports in Race Gap: Crime vs. Punishment on the arguments made before the Supreme Court last week which examined the legitimacy and mandatory nature of sentencing guidelines that result in racially disparate impact among those convicted of powder vs. crack cocaine offenses. In the 1987 McClesky decision, the Supreme Court took up a similar issue in the context of the administration of the death penalty. Some (most notably Brian Stevenson) have compared the Supreme Court’s decision in McClesky (dismissing demonstrated racial bias in death penalty sentencing) to the Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson cases, which established and upheld the “separate but equal” doctrine. Without answering, the article asks to what degree the criminal justice system might be overtly racist and suggests that stereotypes and unconscious/unintentional discrimination may be at work.

The Harvard Project on Law and Mind Sciences recently examined the effect of stereotyping in the criminal justice system with reports on visual processing of African-American criminal suspects and defendants who look “deathworthy”.

A big thank you to Brian Lawlor who brought this article to our attention.