In order to test whether judges are prone to external influence, Danziger and Levav tested the age-old saying that “justice is what the judge ate for breakfast.”
Danziger and Levav spent 10 months documenting eight Israeli judges’ parole decisions. After 10 months, the two professors had over 1,000 parole decisions to answer the question whether
Lady Justice may be blind but she needs a timeout to catch her breath and eat.
One of the suggested hypotheses, is that hard decisions and attendant thinking takes a toll. As a result, the judges, like most people, get tired and seek easier solutions to lighten their mental load. The Israeli judges took longer to render a decision to grant parole and, consistent with being tired, did not grant parole (which took less time) as they approached a recess. Danziger and Levav suggest implementing mandatory breaks for judges.
The U.S. judicial system has an enormous strain from the volume of criminal and civil matters. Judges may be evaluated more by a perception of efficiency than being judicious. For instance, Judge X has been assigned 100 matters this year and 50 are no longer active; therefore, the judge is doing her job. Judges then begin to push juries and, equally important, themselves to keep up with the demand for final resolution.
A timely example of the researchers’ findings: Last Friday, during the closing arguments of the Galleon Trial, New York Times’ reporters Azhem Ahmed and Peter Lattman describe:
There is no need to push our mental limits at the expense of justice. Lady Justice can do much better. Even Matlock got a commercial break.