(WXYZ) — Groups of Michigan lawyers and judges are calling out the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission. The commission is accused of racial bias.
The commission handles formal complaints filed against judges. When someone files a complaint against a judge, it's the commission's job to decide whether to prosecute the judge.
In a letter authored by the Association of Black Judges of Michigan, the association states African American judges are prosecuted at a higher rate.
Since 2020, they say "80 percent of the judges prosecuted by the commission have been Black." The percentage is also said to be disproportionate (52 percent) dating back to 2008.
“You only have... 16 percent of us are judges. So, why do you have such a heightened level of prosecutions?" Robyn McCoy, president of the Black Women Lawyers Association of Michigan questioned.
“We’re asking for fairness with the Judicial Tenure Commission," she told 7 Action News.
The Black Women Lawyers Association of Michigan also wrote a letter calling for the Michigan Supreme Court to conduct an audit of the commission’s prosecution rate.
“What I’m getting from all the parties involved is that there’s this kind of cloud of secrecy surrounding the Judicial Tenure Commission and the way they do things and I don’t think that’s right. I think in anything there should be accountability and there should be transparency," McCoy said.
When asked if African American judges are disproportionately prosecuted by the commission, Lynn Helland said, "The answer is no."
Helland is the executive director of the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission.
"All of the letters that you referred to are relying on a single statistic and that statistic is the commission’s public complaints," he told 7 Action News.
The commission is made up of nine volunteer members, a number of whom Helland said have experience and expertise in implicit bias.
He said a number of their investigations take place privately and that some judges choose to resign or negotiate a suspension. Helland said the Michigan Supreme Court does not allow their identities to be revealed if it’s not a public complaint.
McCoy said, “How are we going to know (the racial makeup) without the data? They haven’t shared the data.”
Helland said an internal review in 2021 confirmed there’s no bias.
That said, yesterday, the Judicial Tenure Commission announced it welcomes an independent review. Helland said that private data would have to be a part of it in order to be fair and accurate.
He said, “Let’s say we’re wrong. Let’s say we look at our data (and) somehow we came up with the wrong conclusion and there really is a disparity. Well, then we want to know that."
"If there’s a disparity, we want to know the reason for it to make sure we’re being fair," Helland concluded.
McCoy said, "We just want to make sure that there's fairness and equity for everybody."
She said she received a letter from the Michigan Supreme Court stating the court is in support of performing an audit on the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission.
