@article{d058b6c9b6d14e1c87d846165a72f0e0,
title = "Profile evidence, fairness, and the risks of mistaken convictions",
abstract = "Many oppose the use of profile evidence against defendants at trial, even when the statistical correlations are reliable and the jury is free from prejudice. The literature has struggled to justify this opposition. We argue that admitting profile evidence is objectionable because it violates what we call “equal protection”—that is, a right of innocent defendants not to be exposed to higher ex ante risks of mistaken conviction compared to other innocent defendants facing similar charges. We also show why admitting other forms of evidence, such as eyewitness, trace, and motive evidence, does not violate equal protection.",
author = "{Di Bello}, Marcello and Collin O{\textquoteright}neil",
note = "Funding Information: For valuable comments and discussions, we are grateful to Sean Aas, Ronald Allen, Lalaie Ameeriar, Nicolas Delon, Didier Fassin, Camil Golub, Bernard Harcourt, Sari Kisi-levsky, Robert MacDougall, Jennifer Morton, Marsha O{\textquoteright}Neil, Duncan Purves, Regina Rini, Umrao Sethi, Seana Valentine Shiffrin, George Smith, Jacob Sparks, Travis Timmerman, Massimiliano Tomba, David Wasserman, and participants in the NYC Early Career Ethicists Workshop, the XII Conference of the Italian Society for Analytic Philosophy, and the CUNY Faculty Fellowship Publication Program, as well as to audiences at the University of Lausanne, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Milan Polytechnic University, and University of Nevada, Las Vegas. We also thank two anonymous reviewers and several associate editors at Ethics for very helpful suggestions. Both authors contributed equally to this article. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.",
year = "2020",
month = jan,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1086/705764",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "130",
pages = "147--178",
journal = "Ethics",
issn = "0014-1704",
publisher = "University of Chicago",
number = "2",
}