State, Local Prosecutors Are 95% White

A study released Tuesday shows about 95 percent of 2,437 elected state and local prosecutors across the U.S. in 2014 were white; of those, 79 percent were white men. The Women Donors Network report also found that 66 percent of states that elect prosecutors have no black people in those positions, underscoring the racial imbalance in the criminal-justice system. The study also found that 15 states had elected white prosecutors exclusively, including Colorado, Tennessee, New Jersey, Washington, and Missouri. The report found 16 percent of elected prosecutors were white women, while only 4 percent of those elected were minority men, compared with 1 percent of minority women.