It estimated that this disparity led to 4,000 extra jail sentences a year for minority defendants in the state.

Prosecutors' Ambitions He complains that ambitious, inexperienced, mostly white prosecutors build their careers "on the backs" of minority defendants.

The harsher treatment of minority defendants is especially meaningful because the courts have broad discretion in lesser felonies.

Nine solicitors were interviewed for between 20 and 50 minutes about the treatment of ethnic minority defendants.

New York must explore safeguards where possible against all-white juries trying minority defendants or the reverse.

The attorney general also dropped charges against 128 minority defendants who had asserted that their arrests were racially tainted.

The market evidence indicates that judges in setting bail demanded lower probabilities of flight from minority defendants.

Mr. Buckman said that he continues to represent minority defendants in criminal cases brought after stops on the turnpike.

Some opponents had worried that under the new law, enacted four years ago, death sentences would fall disproportionately on minority defendants.

But it has created a profoundly discriminatory sentencing pattern, which treats minority defendants unfairly while undermining confidence in the criminal justice system.