Race and Ethnic Fairness
State:
Committee/Report
Name: The New Mexico Supreme Court Committee to Study Racial and Ethnic Fairness
and Equality in the Courts was established by the Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court and published its final report
Number of Committee Members: 27 Task Force members
Number of Subcommittees: No subcommittees.
Chair/Co-Chairs: Justice
Joseph Baca,
Methods Used: After examining the literature from other jurisdictions, the Supreme Court Committee opted to focus its study in three areas:
- Observations and experiences regarding the treatment of minority persons.
- Language and cultural barriers.
- Observations and experiences regarding case outcomes.
Data collection strategies included surveys, public hearings, and the collection and analysis of related data available from various sources.
Topics and Recommendations
Perception
Findings
1. Almost half of the respondents to the Administrative Office of the court’s Community Survey of the general public do not believe that the courts treat all racial and ethnic groups the same.
2. The majority of self selected participants at the seven public hearings reported that minority persons are treated with less respect than Whites/Non-Hispanics.
Access
Findings
1. Over half of the respondents to the comprehensive mailed survey reported having observed communication difficulties because of language differences.
2. Most respondents reported that Spanish language interpreters were usually available; however, they were less likely to report the availability of other language interpreters.
3. About one-third of the respondents to the mailed survey were concerned about the lack of bilingual documents.
4. Public hearing participants spoke about the need for interpreters specifically trained to work with Mexican Nationals, Native Americans, Asians, and the deaf.
Recommendations
1. The Committee recommends that both the supply and demand/utilization of interpreters be studied in more detail.
2. The Committee recommends that judges and other court staff be trained/briefed on the importance of interpreters and their role in various judicial proceedings.
3. The Committee recommends that requirements for continuing education be instituted to maintain certification for court interpreters.
4. The Committee recommends that there be enhanced community outreach and recruitment of interpreters and that AOC and others work with Institutions of Higher Education to coordinate this recruitment. (See also Court as Employer/Appointer: Hiring and Promotion, Recommendation #1)
5. The Committee recommends that the utilization of interpreters be further studied by exploring what scheduling options or other court management practices might increase the practicality and efficiency of using certified interpreters.
6. The Committee recommends that District, Magistrate, and Metro Courts be surveyed to collect bilingual forms and documents currently in use and to make these available on a broader basis. In addition, the Committee recommends that additional bilingual documents and forms be developed as necessary. The need for documents in languages other than Spanish should also be determined.
Findings
1. About one-third of the respondents to the comprehensive mailed survey reported having observed communication difficulties due to cultural differences.
Findings
1. Participants at public hearings (and several people who offered comments on the various surveys) report that the more money you have, the more likely you are to get a fair outcome. Persons from racial and ethnic groups other than White/Non-Hispanic are perceived to have the least access to financial resources and are thus at a disadvantage.
Findings
1. Public hearing participants spoke about the difficulty self represented litigants face with complicated procedures and paperwork. There is a perception that self-represented litigants are most often from racial and ethnic groups other than White/Non-Hispanic.
Recommendations
1. Provide information, training, and support for persons who are self represented litigants.
2. The Committee recommends that a study be conducted of pro se projects in other states, with a particular emphasis on programs that provide services and support to these litigants.
3. The Committee recommends exploration of a number of practices that could benefit self-represented litigants such as the unbundling of legal services, whereby attorneys could assist self-represented litigants on some aspects of the case and not on others; increased use of alternative dispute resolution and other less formal approaches; and increased use of attorneys in a voluntary capacity to assist and advise self-represented litigants.
Juries
Findings
1. Just over half of the respondents to the comprehensive mailed survey believe that minorities are often represented in jury pools in proportion to their numbers in the community; the remainder would say they are only sometimes or never representative.
2. Just over half of the respondents report that minorities are represented on juries in proportion to their numbers in the community; the remainder would say they are only sometimes or never representative.
3. Almost two thirds of the respondents believe preemptory challenges are used to eliminate minority jurors.
4. Just over two thirds of the respondents believe jurors are excluded because of language differences.
5. Only about one-fourth of the participants at public hearings who completed surveys reported that juries are often representative of the community, the remainder would say they were only sometimes or never representative.
6.
Recommendations
1. While a number of efforts are already in place to promote jury diversity, the comments and concerns raised in this study were sufficient to recommend that jury diversity and representation be studied. Either current juror questionnaires can be tabulated to track composition of jury pools and actual juries, or alternatively, a broader based jury management information system could be secured as is intended by the Administrative Office of the Courts. The Committee is particularly interested in how panels are selected, how juries are formed, and who ultimately serves in both civil and criminal trials.
2. The Committee recommends additional training in the Baston decision and its implications for jury selection, more extensive implementation of one day/one trial standards, and a range of other options for increasing public participation on juries. The Committee recommends that the public information strategy presented above include information on the importance of serving on juries.
Findings
1. Almost half of the respondents to the comprehensive mailed survey believe juries are likely to rule less favorably toward minority litigants in civil cases and minority defendants in criminal cases.
2. About one-fourth of the attorney respondents to the State Bar survey believe that juries are likely to rule less favorably toward minority clients in civil cases; over one-third think juries rule less favorably toward minority clients in criminal cases.
Courtroom Experience
Findings
1. The majority of respondents to the comprehensive mailed survey reported no experiences of inequitable treatment of racial and ethnic groups. In addition, abbreviated surveys distributed on-site at a limited number of courts showed that the vast majority of court users (95%) reported that they were treated respectfully and fairly by the judge, the attorneys, and court staff. These data are similar to those from the Administrative Office of the Court’s Survey of Litigants, the vast majority of whom had not encountered racial or ethnic bias in their interactions with the court (See also Courtroom Environment: Court Staff, Finding #1; Courtroom Environment: Lawyers/Others, Finding #1).
2. At least one in ten respondents to the comprehensive mailed survey reported observations of differential treatment by judges (with as many as one in four on certain items).
Findings
1. The majority of respondents to the comprehensive mailed survey reported no experiences of inequitable treatment of racial and ethnic groups. In addition, abbreviated surveys distributed on-site at a limited number of courts showed that the vast majority of court users (95%) reported that they were treated respectfully and fairly by the judge, the attorneys, and court staff. These data are similar to those from the Administrative Office of the Court’s Survey of Litigants, the vast majority of whom had not encountered racial or ethnic bias in their interactions with the court (See also Courtroom Environment: Judges, Finding #1; Courtroom Environment: Lawyers/Others, Finding #1).
2. At least one in ten respondents to the comprehensive mailed survey reported observations of differential treatment by court personnel (with as many as one in five on certain items).
Findings
1. The majority of respondents to the comprehensive mailed survey reported no experiences of inequitable treatment of racial and ethnic groups. In addition, abbreviated surveys distributed on-site at a limited number of courts showed that the vast majority of court users (95%) reported that they were treated respectfully and fairly by the judge, the attorneys, and court staff. These data are similar to those from the Administrative Office of the Court’s Survey of Litigants, the vast majority of whom had not encountered racial or ethnic bias in their interactions with the court (See also Courtroom Environment: Judges, Finding #1; Courtroom Environment: Court Staff, Finding #1).
2. At least one in six respondents to the comprehensive mailed survey reported observations of differential treatment by attorneys (with as many as one in four on certain items).
3. Just over one-third of the attorney respondents to the New Mexico Bar Survey report observations of unfair treatment based on race and/or ethnicity.
Quality
of legal representation
Findings
1. Not surprisingly, there is a belief that there are too few Public Defenders and their excessive caseloads limit the amount of time and attention paid to cases assigned to them.
Recommendations
1. The Committee recognizes the need for additional personnel for the Public Defender Department and Legal Services to insure all clients are provided with high quality legal representation that protects their liberty and constitutional rights and serves the interests of society in a fair and efficient system of justice.
2. The Committee supports efforts currently
being considered to write a Rule allowing temporary licenses for attorneys
licensed in other states to work with the Public Defender Department until they
pass the Bar in
Legal Profession
Findings
1. The New Mexico State Bar reports that their 1998 membership is 78% White/Non-Hispanic, 17% Hispanic/Latino, and 5% Other (African American, American Indian, Asian, and other).
2. White/Non-Hispanic attorneys were more likely to be partners or directors than were Hispanic/Latino attorneys.
3. About one-quarter (26%) of White/Non-Hispanic attorney respondents earned more than $100,000 in 1997, compared to 15% of Hispanic/Latino respondents.
Education
Recommendations
1. The
Committee recommends that training be directed to judges, attorneys, and court
staff, capitalizing and expanding upon the efforts currently in place at the
2. The Committee supports the efforts of the New
Mexico Tribal-State Judicial Consortium. This group was created by the New
Mexico Supreme Court and the
Recommendations
1. The Committee recommends that training be
directed to judges, attorneys, and court staff, capitalizing and expanding upon
the efforts currently in place at the
Recommendations
1. The Committee recommends that training be
directed to judges, attorneys, and court staff, capitalizing and expanding upon
the efforts currently in place at the
Recommendations
1. Inform
the public about the roles, functions, and services of
2. The Committee supports the work of the AOC in terms of its proposal to develop a Public Communications Strategy for New Mexico Courts. This strategy would involve developing a coherent message, directed to the public, about what the courts do, what they stand for, and why they are important. The message and overall communication strategy would address the concerns many people have about leniency in criminal cases, too many technicalities and tricks, juries that cannot be trusted or are otherwise biased, etc. Such a strategy would also seek to convey commitment to impartiality and fairness and the court’s zero tolerance for bias and prejudice of any sort. It would inform the public about why the judiciary is a separate branch of government; it would present the values and operating principles of the legal system; and it would convey what courts accomplish on behalf of the communities they serve.
Civil and Family
Findings
1. About one quarter of the respondents to the comprehensive mailed survey reported that minority litigants in civil cases are treated differently than non-minority litigants in terms of frequency of out-of-court settlements, decisions in personal injury cases, and amounts of awards.
Findings
1. About one quarter of the respondents to the comprehensive mailed survey reported that minority participants in juvenile and family law cases are treated differently in terms of enforcement of child support, disposition of domestic violence cases, release to family, sentencing, and alternative dispositions in delinquency proceedings, and removal from home, treatment of parents, and termination of parental rights decisions in child abuse and neglect proceedings. (See also Juvenile Justice, Finding #1)
Criminal Justice
Findings
1. When available data were examined concerning arrests, it was noted that Blacks/African Americans and Native Americans were arrested in considerable greater proportions than their proportions in the general population in several geographical areas.
Findings
1. About one in three respondents to the comprehensive mailed survey reported that minority defendants in criminal cases are treated differently than non-minority defendants in terms of release on own recognizance decisions, approval and amount of bail, pretrial incarceration, conviction/acquittal decisions, reduction of charges, guilty pleas, and sentencing length and type.
Findings
1. Sentencing data were inconclusive in terms of sentence length for various types of crime, but suggested that Blacks/African Americans were more likely to have been convicted of more serious crimes than other groups.
Findings
1. Prison population data show that Whites/Non-Hispanics are under-represented when compared to overall prison population statistics, while persons from other racial and ethnic groups are over-represented.
Court as an
Employer/Appointer
Findings
1. In terms of court personnel, 37% are White/Non-Hispanic, 58% are Hispanic/Latino, and 5% are Other.
2. Public Defender data show that 77% of their attorneys are White/Non-Hispanic, 17% are Hispanic/Latino, and 6% are Other.
Recommendations
1. The Committee recommends that there be enhanced community outreach and recruitment of interpreters and that AOC and others work with Institutions of Higher Education to coordinate this recruitment. (See also Access: Language, Recommendation #4)
2. The Committee recommends that personnel policies and procedures regarding recruitment, selection, and promotion of court personnel, attorneys, and others be examined in terms of their adequacy to promote workforce quality and diversity and prohibit discriminatory practices.
Findings
1. Available data concerning the work force of the State’s courts show that judges are 67% White/Non-Hispanic, 28% Hispanic/Latino, and 5% Other.
Recommendations
1. The Committee recommends a review of judicial selection and retention practices to determine if they are adequate to keep and retain qualified judges, promote minority representation, and effectively deal with judicial misconduct.
Findings
1. About one quarter of the respondents to the comprehensive mailed survey reported that minority participants in juvenile and family law cases are treated differently in terms of enforcement of child support, disposition of domestic violence cases, release to family, sentencing, and alternative dispositions in delinquency proceedings, and removal from home, treatment of parents, and termination of parental rights decisions in child abuse and neglect proceedings. (See also Civil and Family: Family, Finding #1)
Recommendations
1. Ensure that the court’s automated data systems are capable of tracking racial and ethnic information. In addition, the systems must be capable of comparing various civil and criminal case outcomes for different racial and ethnic groups.
2. The Committee recommends that the data collected by the Administrative Office of the District Attorney be available to the Committee and others. Currently, the data needed to track outcomes by racial and ethnic groups are available in the system for criminal cases, but the system has not been programmed to produce aggregate and comparative data at the district or the state level. The Committee supports initiatives at the Administrative Office of the District Attorney to create this capacity.
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