Judge grants motion finding implicit bias with police officer’s testimony
San Francisco – San Francisco Public Defenders have won the first California Racial Justice Act (RJA) motion in San Francisco since the law was enacted in 2021. An RJA hearing for a young Black man revealed that a police officer exhibited implicit bias during the man’s arrest and during trial testimony. This led the judge to reduce certain felony convictions to misdemeanors as a remedy for that discrimination, as provided under the RJA.
The California Racial Justice Act states: “Implicit bias, although often unintentional and unconscious, may inject racism and unfairness into proceedings similar to intentional bias. The intent of the Legislature is not to punish this type of bias, but rather to remedy the harm to the defendant’s case and to the integrity of the judicial system.”
“Implicit bias plays a huge role in our legal system — from police to prosecutors to judges — and has historically resulted in the over-policing, over-charging and over-sentencing of people of color,” said Deputy Public Defender Diamond Ward, who represented Adonte Bailey, who was granted relief under the RJA…