Judicial Leniency on Defendant Birthdays [study]

A French / US research team, who analysed the outcomes of more than 4 million court cases, found that, if you’re a defendant :

Having a decision on one’s birthday reduces the sentence by 4 days out of an average total sentence length of 127 days

If you’re wondering why a defendant may get more favorably treated if it’s their birthday :

The effect seems at least partly driven by the fact that the birthday defendants are convicted of a less severe crime, a proxy for partial acquittal or re-qualification in court, effectively amounting to a shorter maximum sentence length of 27 days out of 1,283 (a 2% reduction)

See : Clash of Norms: Judicial Leniency on Defendant Birthdays