When California lawmakers approved the racial justice law in August 2020 – just months after the murder of George Floyd – many wealthy people had high hopes that it would help years of long sentences handed down.
The law allows convicted criminals to challenge the length of their prison terms if they can demonstrate racial disparities or discriminatory practices in the criminal justice system in California where their case is being prosecuted.
But five years after its passage, the law has not been implemented, according to an analysis of sentencing data recently obtained by the Stanford Law School Trimes Projects and the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund.
In California, “There has never been a finding by any judge of separate sentencing” as defined by the law, according to Michael S. Romano, director of the Stanford Law Project.
On Monday, the Stanford Law Group and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund announced the filing of 18 new applications among five officials – including Los Angeles and Gross Cavides in the Christian Crimes. “
In LA County, the Stanford Group said STANFFORD said STANFFORD data showed that, compared to white defendants, black people were 13 times more likely to serve life for attempted robbery with less than three strikes.
One of the federal inmates seeking a reduced name is John Crawford, who was sentenced in La County to 45 years for attempted second-degree robbery. In 2018, Crawford, now 41, “approached a man on the street and asked for his wallet and phone, and the man ran away,” according to his plea.
The filing continues to show the high number of life sentences among black people in La County for attempted robbery, adding that those found guilty of prison sentences were sentenced to lesser charges for the same crimes.
Crawford’s claim is “entitled to a new, full and proper sentence” under the Discrimination Justice Act.
“Given how disparate it is, I think it’s surprising and I think the courts will agree,” Romano told the Times. “We ask our customers to be offended, they are actually getting a sentence of white people who have received crimes and similar situations.”
When lawmakers vetoed the Racial Justice Act, critics said it would lead to mass exodus of dangerous prisoners. That didn’t happen. Instead, the law has been used in some cases by people seeking to reform racially discriminatory behavior by individual law enforcement officials.
Nationwide, “only a handful of defendants are successful in finding that they did not affect their criminal convictions,” Garrison’s project and gloating corn In November 2024.
The goal of the Racial Justice Act “is to remove race in all its forms from the criminal justice system, and one form of racism is racism,” Jody Armor, a USC law professor who previously chaired the intersection of race and justice, told the Times last year.
The ultimate goal of Stanford’s joint legislative and NAACP legislative effort, according to Romano, is “Not only to do justice for our customers but to show the way for other people to release similar claims in the future. “
