#racial-justice-act

#racial-justice-act

SAN JOSE - A Santa Clara County judge on Friday rejected a proposed settlement between prosecutors and convicted murderer Erik Chatman that would have given parole eligibility to the man who once faced the death penalty for viciously stabbing Rosellina LoBue at a San Jose photo kiosk in 1987. The deal was meant to resolve habeas corpus and Racial Justice Act petitions Chatman filed this year, alleging his trial was plagued by racial bias and misconduct.

The law allows convicted defendants to challenge the length of their prison terms if they can demonstrate racial disparities or discriminatory practices in the California jurisdiction where their case was prosecuted. But five years after its passage, the law has hardly been used, according to an analysis of newly obtained sentencing data by the Stanford Law School Three Strikes Project and NAACP's Legal Defense Fund.