Study: 95 percent of elected prosecutors are white

Ninety-five percent of the 2,437 elected state and local prosecutors in the United States in 2014 were white, a study by the Women Donors Network has discovered. And, while only 31 percent of the U.S. population are white males, 79 percent of elected prosecutors were men — a mere 16 percent were women, and just 1 percent were minority women.

The New York Times, which reported on the study, adds that in the wake of the national debates over racism and racial imbalances in the criminal justice system, "the racial makeup of police forces across the country has been carefully documented" while "the diversity of prosecutors, who many law enforcement experts say exercise more influence over the legal system, has received little scrutiny." Indeed, it is in the prosecutor's hands to decide whether to bring criminal charges, or if and for how long to negotiate a prison sentence.

The Women Donors Network also found that a shocking 66 percent of states that elect prosecutors have no black people in their offices and 15 states elected entirely white prosecutors.

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"They have to see someone that looks like them," the president of the National Black Prosecutors Association, Melba V. Pearson, told The New York Times, referring to minority groups' long-held mistrust of the legal system. "When you walk into a courtroom and no one looks like you, do you think you are going to get a fair shake?"