Opinion ID: 2310629
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Robinson's Proffered Evidence of an Equal Protection Violation

Text: In support of his charges of selective prosecution and discrimination at trial, Robinson relies on certain statistics culled from Superior Court records and reported in a June 23, 1997, letter from the Clerk of the Court which Robinson proffered with his motions. According to the Clerk's letter, court records showed that a total of 2,192 persons were arrested for domestic violence offenses [16] since the inception of the Domestic Violence Unit. Of those 2,192 persons, 1,805 or 82% were men. The Clerk's letter states that the United States Attorney's Office papered ( i.e., we assume, charged by information or complaint) 70% of the cases against the men and 51% of the cases against the women. The Clerk reported that the Superior Court did not have conviction rates in domestic violence cases broken down by gender, but that the the conviction rate for both sexes is 69%, almost entirely in bench trials. In addition to these figures, Robinson proffered the affidavit of one David Pierce (not otherwise identified), in which Pierce reported on his analysis of the criminal calendars of two Superior Court judges in the Domestic Violence Unit (neither of them Judge Gardner). One calendar covered the period February 26 to March 6, 1997, a total of seven days. The other calendar covered the period February 26 to March 17, 1997, a total of thirteen days. [17] The Pierce affidavit reports that a total of 84 cases on the two calendars were disposed of by trial, guilty plea or dismissal. In 75 of those cases (89%), the defendant was a man. In the sixteen cases on the two calendars that were resolved by trial, the one female defendant who went to trial was acquitted, while twelve of the fifteen male defendants (80%) who stood trial were convicted. [18] The government dismissed the charges against 25% (19 of 75) of the male defendants, and 44% (4 of 9) of the female defendants. [19] Robinson concludes that the foregoing statistics demonstrated gender disparity in the rate of arrest, 82% male to 17% female, in the papering rate, 70% for men and 30% [sic; presumably Robinson means 51%] for women, in the conviction rate at trial, 80% for men and 0% for women and in the rate at which the government enters a nolle prosequi, 25% for men and 44% for women. [20]