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Racial Disparity in Florida Plea Bargains

By Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Mon Jan 26, 2004 at 10:34:15 AM EST
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A new study in Florida shows that whites are more likely to be offered plea bargains than African-Americans.

White criminal offenders in Florida are nearly 50 percent more likely than blacks to get a ''withhold of adjudication,'' a plea deal that blocks their felony convictions even though they plead to the crime. White Hispanics are 31 percent more likely than blacks to get a withhold.

The disparity in outcomes has cost thousands of black offenders their civil rights, including the right to vote, serve on juries, hold public office, own a firearm. And the convictions carry an economic penalty: Felons can't be hired for many government jobs, and they can't apply for some student loans.

There are differing views on why the disparity exists. Reasons aren't the issue.

Whatever the reason, a Herald computer analysis of nearly 800,000 felony criminal cases from 1993 to 2002 found a system that is more likely to punish blacks than whites in the same predicament.

''There is an ideal that this is a race-blind system, but the fact of the matter is, blacks are less likely to get a withhold. It is not coincidence that the numbers came out this way,'' said Gary Kleck, a Florida State University criminology professor who has published numerous studies on racial bias in sentencing and examined The Herald's analysis. ``To the extent that there is a pattern, blacks get the short end of the stick.''

And no surprise here: the biggest disparity is in drug crimes.

Across Florida, white offenders arrested for crimes like drug possession or dealing are nearly twice as likely to get the break as blacks charged with the same crime.

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