In Sarasota, Florida, a shocking new report by the Herald Tribune has revealed how local judges and New College of Florida President Donal O’Shea recently conspired to discredit a study showing racially biased sentencing in Florida courts and to defeat a new bill that would hold judges accountable.
In December 2016, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune published the results of a yearlong “Bias on the Bench” study which clearly shows racial bias in criminal court sentencing across the state of Florida.
This intensive report inspired House Bill 255, a law that would hold judges accountable for inequitable sentencing caused by overt or implicit racial bias against Black people. The bill would have required the Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability to analyze sentencing data that is already compiled by the state’s court system for disparity in sentencing and release an annual report on their findings to the governor, key lawmakers, the chief justice of the Supreme Court and judges throughout the state.
The bill, which is supported by the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Florida Defense Lawyers trade group, should have been voted on earlier this month. However, at the last minute the vote was postponed due to pushback from judges including Twelfth Circuit Chief Judge Charles Williams, who placed high on the list of judges with wide discrepancies in sentencing between Black and white defendants.
Williams reached out to New College President Donal O’Shea to get his help discrediting the Herald-Tribune’s study. O’Shea enlisted the help of Patrick McDonald, New College’s Director of Data Science. McDonald later told reporters: “I don’t really understand the data. I’m a newcomer to this field. I’m an amateur at this.” Yet McDonald’s admittedly flawed report was presented to the legislature and, as intended, delayed the vote on the judicial accountability bill.
This is a perfect example of the establishment and the state using its power to silence voices and hide our truth. The same people who want to punish workers and oppressed people–“lock’em up and throw away the key”–want to evade any accountability for their own blatant civil rights violations.
Williams and other judges who oppose the bill say that they shouldn’t be held accountable for cases where a plea deal was agreed upon by the prosecution and the defense, as they just “sign off on” such agreements. In reality, in 90 percent of cases that go through the court, judges do have the authority to reject plea deals—they just don’t.
Ironically, the data indicates that when cases involving plea deals are left out of the analysis (as the New College report encourages) the outcomes appear even more biased. In cases of third-degree felonies, for instance, when plea deals are accounted for, Black defendants spend 8 percent more time in lockup than white defendants. However, when a case does go to trial and the judges are the ones deciding the sentences, Black defendants spend an astonishing 43 percent longer in lockup than white defendants.
The very man who wrote the New College study refuting the Herald-Tribune’s report is on record stating that his methodology was faulty. Even if it weren’t, using the very criteria the report recommends actually demonstrates a much higher percentage of racial bias among the judiciary than originally reported.
New College students are outraged by the actions of Donal O’Shea and Patrick McDonald. Some have started a Change.org petition encouraging people to support the Herald-Tribune report and condemn the New College study. Student Ximena Pedroza wrote on Facebook:
“As a New College student, this is appalling to have our institution aid the racist system that incarcerates more black and brown bodies than white. As a New College student this is also frustrating when they oppose to hold a political standing on immigration and other racism issues but are quick to jump the bandwagon in supporting racial bias in criminal sentencing.”
