ACLU Presents Evidence of Racial Bias in Riverside County’s Use of the Death Penalty

RIVERSIDE – The ACLU and ACLU Foundation of Southern California presented expert testimony last week proving that Black and Latine defendants are far more likely than their white counterparts to face capital charges in Riverside County in the state’s first evidentiary hearing in a capital case under California’s Racial Justice Act (CRJA).

The CRJA, passed in 2020, prohibits the state from pursuing convictions or sentences based on a person’s race, ethnicity, or national origin. The law allows individuals to challenge racial bias in their cases by demonstrating a trend of racial disparities in the places they were sentenced, without having to prove intentional discrimination.

Throughout the week, six expert witnesses presented evidence of a historical and ongoing pattern of racial discrimination in Riverside County’s pursuit of the death penalty, including studies that show that:

• Black and Latine defendants are far more likely to face capital charges in Riverside County than white defendants accused of the same crimes. During District Attorney Mike Hestrin’s term, the office sought the death penalty against Black and Latine defendants at nearly twice the rate it did against white defendants.

• The odds that the District Attorney’s Office would file a death notice against a Black defendant were 7.31 times greater than the odds that it would for a white defendant. For Latine defendants, the odds were 3.86 times those for white defendants.

“The facts here speak for themselves. Riverside County has a clear pattern of discriminating against Black and Latine individuals when it comes to the death penalty,” said Cassy Stubbs, director of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project. “California passed the Racial Justice Act to confront racial bias in the criminal legal system and ensure that a person’s race does not determine their fate. The court should uphold that promise and take the death penalty off the table in this case.”

Racial disparities in Riverside County’s application of the death penalty have broader implications for the state. From 2015 to 2019, the county accounted for more than one third of California’s new death sentences despite only representing 6% of the state’s overall population.

“Race must not be a factor in whether someone faces the death penalty,” said Summer Lacey, director of criminal justice and police practices at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. “Riverside County accounts for a disproportionate amount of death penalty sentences in our state and the racial disparities in the Riverside District Attorney’s Office’s decision to seek death are plain and clear.”