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Little is known about the role of race in the defense of low income
defendants by court-appointed attorneys. Exploiting the
quasi-random assignment of court-appointed attorneys to cases,
we test whether attorneys secure better deals for same-race defendants.
Results indicate that while Black and White attorneys are
similarly effective at representing White defendants, Black defendants
who are represented by White rather than Black attorneys
are 14-16 percent more likely to have their charges dismissed and
15-26 percent less likely to be incarcerated. Moreover, we find no
evidence that having a different-race attorney increases the likelihood
of re-offending in the future.
