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122 Yale L. J. 2626 (2012-2013)
Implicit Racial Bias in Public Defender Triage

handle is hein.journals/ylr122 and id is 2718 raw text is: L. SONG RICHARDSON & PHILLIP ATIBA GOFF Implicit Racial Bias in Public Defender Triage ABSTRACT. Despite the promise of Gideon, providing the guiding hand of counsel to indigent defendants remains unmanageable, largely because the nation's public defender offices are overworked and underfunded. Faced with overwhelming caseloads and inadequate resources, public defenders must engage in triage, deciding which cases deserve attention and which do not. Although scholars have recognized the need to develop standards for making these difficult judgments, they have paid little attention to how implicit, i.e., unconscious, biases may affect those decisions. There is reason to suspect that unconscious biases will influence public defender decisionmaking due to generations of racial stereotypes specific to stigmatized groups and crime. This Essay urges legal scholars and practitioners to consider how implicit biases may influence the rationing of defense entitlements and suggests ways to safeguard against the effects of these unconscious forces. A U T H O R S. L. Song Richardson is Professor, University of Iowa College of Law; Yale Law School, J.D.; Harvard College, A.B. Phillip Atiba Goff is Assistant Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Psychology; Stanford University, Ph.D.; Harvard College, A.B. We are grateful to all those who took the time to provide insightful comments, critiques, and suggestions on this Essay, including John Bronsteen, Jack Chin, Stella Elias, Paul Gowder, Cynthia Ho, Emily Hughes, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Todd Pettys, Matt Sag, Lauren Sudeall Lucas, Deborah Tuerkheimer, and faculty who attended the workshop at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Additionally, I thank the organizers of this conference, Nancy Leong, Justin Marceau, and members of The Yale Law Journal, particularly Doug Lieb and Ida Araya-Brumskine. Solomon Chouicha, Ernini Magalhies, and Taylor Whitten provided excellent research assistance. Finally, Professor Richardson must acknowledge Kurt Kieffer for countless conversations and insights. Any errors are our own. 2626