Black offenders are more likely to get federal life sentences than Hispanic and white offenders, a new study finds

California sentencing reform — In this Aug. 16, 2016, file photo, general population inmates walk in a line at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif. In November 2020, California voters will consider rolling back a host of criminal justice changes in what amounts to a referendum on whether the famously progressive state has become too lenient. Proposition 20 would amend criminal sentencing and supervision laws enacted during the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown that critics say are too favorable to criminals, while Proposition 25 could overturn a 2018 law that eliminates cash bail
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Black offenders are more likely than white and Hispanic offenders to receive federal life sentences, a new study finds.
New data released in the journal Criminology was first covered by Axios's Russell Contreras.
Some experts believe that federal sentencing is fraught with racial bias.
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Black offenders are more likely than white and Hispanic offenders to receive federal life sentences, according to a new study.

In an analysis of Americans convicted of a federal crime from 2010 to 2017, Black offenders were involved in less than a third of all cases but accounted for nearly half of the cases that were eligible for life sentences, according to study published last month in the journal Criminology. White offenders, meanwhile, accounted for more than a third of all cases but received less than a quarter of federal life sentences handed out during that time, the study found.

The results were first reported on by Axios's Russell Contreras.

The study analyzed the race of 366,000 federal offenders and the sentences imposed in 90 federal district courts. More than 4,800 qualified for a life sentence, while nearly 1,200 people received such a term, the study found.

Hispanic offenders were also more likely than white offenders to receive federal life sentences, the study found, although Black offenders were still twice as likely to receive life imprisonment. Immigration law offenses were excluded from the study.

"Two out of three people serving life terms are defendants of color, and some believe that life sentences are fraught with racial bias," said Brian Johnson, the University of Maryland criminology and criminal justice professor who led the study, in a statement to Axios.

"If there are racial disparities in this type of sentencing, we must investigate the mechanisms that contribute to them," Johnson said.

The study comes as activists are working to reform parts of the criminal justice system as crime levels in some areas ticked up during the coronavirus pandemic, according to Axios. Politicians across the political spectrum have advocated for criminal justice reform, including addressing police bias and abolishing solitary confinement, also known as punitive segregation.

President Joe Biden had campaigned on a pledge to reform "inhumane prison practices," such as solitary confinement, which studies have shown is more widely used among Black and Hispanic prisoners.

Advocates for criminal justice reform have also taken on the economic disparity among those accused of crimes. Earlier this year, California's Supreme Court ruled it is unconstitutional to hold people in jail simply because they can't afford bail.