DISTANT VOICES THEN AND NOW: THE IMPACT OF ISOLATION ON THE COURTROOM NARRATIVES OF SLAVE SHIP CAPTIVES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS

[...]adjudicators and political leaders before and during the litigation process consistently referred to the Antelope captives as "slaves" even before their slave status was determined.148 The few newspapers that covered the case did not interview or provide personal accounts of the captives.149 The press instead chose to comment "on the quality of the arguments and the power of their presentation. "284 The type of evidence gathered and the way it is developed into a narrative produce different outcomes for asylum seekers, just as they drove the different outcomes of the Antelope and Amistad cases. [...]immigration law contains particularly high variance in case outcomes depending on court, region, and judge.285 This variance could be due to differing political biases, implicit biases,286 gender biases,287 and previous work experiences288-factors a keen attorney could take into account when counseling asylum seekers. First (July 2017), http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/sites/default/files/hrf-asylum-reform-and-borderprotection-act-would-return-persecuted-refugees-to-danger.pdf. First (July 2017), http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/sites/default/files/ hrf-asylum-reform-and-border-protection-act-would-return-persecuted-refugees-to-danger.pdf (stating the outcomes of the proposed Asylum Reform and Border Protection Act of 2017 (H.R. 391)).