Charles B. Day, Vice-Chair
Carmen M. Shepard, Esq., Vice-Chair
Johnathan Ilsong Ahn, Esq.; Marielsa A. Bernard; Donna G. Burch; Alice Chong, Esq.; Michelle Livojevic Davis, Ph.D.; Charlene Cole-Newkirk, Esq.; William B. Dulany, Esq.; George Fauth; Elizabeth M. Hewlett, Esq.; Michele D. Hotten; W. Newton Jackson III; Rev. Nathaniel Johnson; Spyros J. Sarbanes, Esq.; Kimberly Smith-Ward, Esq.; Gustava E. Taler, Esq.; Joseph A. Trevino, Esq.; Bernard Wynder.
Staff: William L. Howard, Ed.D.
Maryland Judicial Center, 580 Taylor Ave., Annapolis, Maryland, August 2003. Photo by Diane F. Evartt.
In February 2002, the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Judicial Process was created by the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. The Commission's charge was to determine to what extent bias, or the perception of, affects the State judicial system. Specifically, the Commission developed a methodology to collect feedback from actual litigants, witnesses, and jurors on what ethnic, racial or economic bias they encountered in the court system. The Commission also recommended ways to reduce or eliminate unequal access to or treatment by the court system, and to increase public confidence in equality under the law. In addition, the Commission identified initiatives to raise public and professional awareness of how race and ethnic origin impact the delivery of justice in Maryland courts, and recommended educational programs for the bench and bar to eliminate racial, economic and ethnic bias in the State court system.
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