Justice is Not Blind

Lady Justice is one of the most famous legal symbols in America. She possesses three main characteristics: the scales of justice, a sword, and a blindfold. These characteristics each represent different yet important ideas and values in the legal system. However, together, they represent the fair and equal administration of the law. Nonetheless, jurors have struggled in applying these ideas and values, especially the impartiality symbolized by the blindfold. 

In 2000, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) issued a report that “America’s justice system is not blind.” In today’s society, race, social status, and wealth often play a factor in juror determinations regarding whether a defendant should be convicted of a crime or not and how that person should treated after they are convicted. Often times, the unequal enforcement of our nation’s laws derives from what is called juror “implicit bias.”

Implicit Bias:

Implicit biases (unconscious bias) are attitudes and beliefs that occur outside of juror’s conscious awareness and control that can affect how they evaluate information and make decisions. These biases often result from what we call system 1 thinking (fast, automatic, unconscious, and emotional thinking) and arise because we tend to seek out patterns; we like to take shortcuts; and social and cultural influences. For example, without their conscious knowledge, jurors have certain attitudes towards people (e.g., cops) or associate stereotypes with people (e.g., people from X country are violent and uncivilized).

Studies:

While jurors are supposed to evaluate only legal evidence, “extralegal factors” often influence a juror’s judgement.

Race:

Some studies show that jurors often make harsher judgements of defendants from other racial and ethnic groups that they do not identify with. Similarly, the ACLU found that “minority youths are more likely than whites to be treated as harshly as possible at each step in the criminal justice system even when compared only to youths of similar age, gender, offense and record.” 

Attractiveness: 

Other studies have found that an attractive defendant is treated differently than an unattractive defendant. For example, smiling defendants tend to receive less harsh sentences compared to non-smiling defendants. 

Solution

To reduce implicit bias, some courts have begun alerting jurors of hidden biases they might bring to the court. For example, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle and Tacoma show prospective jurors an 11-minute video regarding unconscious bias. The video attempts to ensure that jurors 

1. Know that unconscious bias exists and occurs in everyone; 
2. Carefully examine their decisions and judgments; and 
3. Question whether their decision would bee different if the witness, lawyer, or person on trial were of a different race, age, or gender. 

Creating awareness may be the best solution we currently have to try reduce implicit biases. However, simply understanding that biases exists does not necessarily mean jurors will stop themselves from acting on them in the moment. Perhaps, we need to blindfold jurors just like Lady Justice. As one of my classmate noted, “being unable to see prevents ‘inaccurate and unfair conclusions.’”