#racial-justice-act

#racial-justice-act

The ruling by Judge Thomas Stevens marks the third upended guilty verdict tied to the longtime Oakland police officer, who is awaiting trial on several bribery and perjury charges. The burgeoning scandal has already led to multiple lenient plea deals and case dismissals tied to the detective's work, along with a review of more than 200 homicide cases he either led or touched.

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.