A Fairfax County, Virginia, circuit judge has ordered the portraits of White judges to be removed from the court ahead of a Black man’s trial, saying the continued display of the paintings could denote bias (article available here).
The court, in its written opinion letter, noted that only three Black judges had ever been elected to the Fairfax Circuit Court, and that White judges make up 45 of the 47 portraits that line the courtrooms. “The Court has considered the question of whether it should permit a jury trial to take place in a courtroom gilded with portraits of jurists, particularly when they are overwhelmingly of white individuals peering down on an African American defendant whose liberty is the object of adjudication in this cause,” the court wrote.
Additionally, “the Court is concerned the portraits may serve as unintended but implicit symbols that suggest the courtroom may be a place historically administered by whites for whites, and that thus others are of a lesser standing in the dispensing of justice,” the court added. “The Defendant’s constitutional right to a fair jury trial stands paramount over the countervailing interest of paying homage to the tradition of adorning courtrooms with portraits that honor past jurists.”
Public defenders raised the issue in a motion titled Motion to Remove Portraiture Overwhelmingly Depicting White Jurists Hanging in Trial Courtroom. “While to some the issue of portraits might be a trivial matter, to those subject to the justice system it is far from the case,” the court found.
Accordingly, the upcoming trial of on charges of eluding police will be held in a courtroom that has no portraits on the wall.