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The Relationship Between Type of Attorney and Bail Amount Set for Hispanic Defendants

University of Memphis

James B. Johnson

University of Nebraska at Omaha

This research empirically examines the difference that type of counsel, public or private, makes in the bail amount set for Hispanic defendants. Data were collected on all felony defendants assigned to the district court in a midwestern county. Specifically, the authors hypothesized that Hispanic defendants who retain the assistance of private counsel will receive lower bail amounts than defendants assigned a court-appointed attorney. Several independent controls were employed including the legal variables—offense seriousness and prior arrests —and the extralegal variables—sex, age, and residency . These data were analyzed using ordinary least squares multiple regression. The analyses show that although Hispanic defendants utilizing private counsel receive lower bail amounts than defendants assigned a court-appointed attorney, only the variables age, residency, and offense seriousness significantly affect bail amount set.

Key Words: bail • ethnicity • judicial decision making • pretrial release • race

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