THE INTERRACIAL EVALUATION WAS POSSIBLE BECAUSE THE GROUP OF 16 BLACK JUDGES AND A GROUP OF 75 WHITE JUDGES RESPONDED TO SIMILAR CASES WITHIN THE SAME LEGAL, INSTITUTIONAL, AND COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENTS. TWO SAMPLES OF FELONY CASES DOCKETED AND DISPOSED OF BETWEEN JULY 1968 AND JUNE 1974 WERE EXAMINED: (1) 24,100 BENCH TRIALS IN WHICH BLACK JUDGES RENDERED 5,328 VERDICTS (22.1 PERCENT) AND (2) 30,350 DEFENDANTS FOUND GUILTY AT BENCH OR JURY TRIALS AS WELL AS THOSE PLEADING GUILTY. BLACK JUDGES SENTENCED 5,986 OF THE 30,350 CONVICTED (19.7 PERCENT). BLACK JUDGES WERE SOMEWHAT LESS LIKELY THAN WHITE JUDGES TO FIND DEFENDANTS GUILTY. BLACK JUDGES FOUND 55.5 PERCENT OF THEIR DEFENDANTS GUILTY, AS COMPARED WITH 61.1 PERCENT FOR WHITE JUDGES. THERE WERE NO IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE JUDGES IN THE TREATMENT OF BLACK AND WHITE DEFENDANTS. THE DATA SUGGESTED THAT CASE OUTCOMES MAY BE INFLUENCED MORE BY INDIVIDUAL JUDGE DIFFERENCES THAN BY JUDICIAL RACE. JUDGES DIVERGED SUBSTANTIALLY IN THEIR TENDENCY TO CONVICT. BLACK JUDGES WITH CONVICTION RATES RANGING FROM 48 PERCENT TO 76 PERCENT DISPLAYED A DIVERSITY SIMILAR TO THAT OF ALL JUDGES. THE MEAN SENTENCE HANDED DOWN BY BLACK JUDGES WAS 6.2 PERCENT MORE SEVERE THAN THE OVERALL AVERAGE AND 7.7 PERCENT MORE SEVERE THAN THE MEAN SENTENCE HANDED DOWN BY WHITE JUDGES. THE IMPLICATIONS OF BLACK JUDICIAL DECISIONMAKING ARE DISCUSSED. SUPPORTING DATA AND REFERENCES ARE PROVIDED. (DEP)