Challenging Racial Disparities in Sentencing: The Impact of California's Racial Justice Act
The Racial Justice Act was passed in California in August 2020 to address racial disparities in sentencing. However, five years later, the law has seen limited use, with no judges finding disparate sentencing in the state. The Stanford Law School Three Strikes Project and NAACP's Legal Defense Fund recently filed 18 petitions in five counties, including Los Angeles and Riverside, citing racial disparities in sentencing under the Three Strikes law.
In Los Angeles County, data showed that Black individuals were over 13 times more likely than white individuals to receive life sentences for attempted robbery under Three Strikes. One petitioner, John Crawford, was sentenced to 45 years to life for attempted second-degree robbery. The petition argues that Black individuals in L.A. County receive sentences 36% longer than white individuals for the same offense.
The goal of the petitions is to seek resentencing for individuals like Crawford under the Racial Justice Act. Critics of the law had feared a mass release of dangerous prisoners, but the law has primarily been used to address racially biased behavior by law enforcement officers. Only a few defendants have successfully proven bias affected their cases statewide.
The Racial Justice Act aims to eliminate racism from the criminal justice system, particularly systemic racism. The joint effort by Stanford Law and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund seeks to not only achieve justice for their clients but also set a precedent for future claims of racial disparities in sentencing.