Prosecutors

Elected prosecutors are mostly white males, study finds

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A new study of the country’s elected prosecutors has found that about 95 percent of the positions are held by whites, and about 79 percent are held by white males.

The study by the Women Donors Network found that 66 percent of states that elect prosecutors have no blacks in those positions, the New York Times reports. The study included elected state attorneys general, as well as elected city, county and judicial district prosecutors.

Brenda Choresi Carter of the Women Donors Network oversaw the study. “What this shows us is that, in the context of a growing crisis that we all recognize in criminal justice in this country, we have a system where incredible power and discretion is concentrated in the hands of one demographic group,” she told the New York Times.

A press release is here.

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