A Virginia judge issued an opinion in which he stated that a black man who was being tried on charges of eluding police must not have his trial in one of the courtrooms used during the coronavirus pandemic because those larger courtrooms have numerous portraits of white people.
On Monday, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge David Bernhard wrote of the prospective trial of Terrance Shipp on January 4, saying “criminal defendants are disproportionately of color and judges disproportionately white … 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.”
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