In a 2-1 ruling, a state appeals court upheld California’s Racial Justice Act earlier this month.
The law, which took effect in 2021, prohibits the state from seeking or obtaining a criminal conviction or from imposing a sentence based on race, ethnicity, or national origin. But it was prospective only, excluding judgments rendered before January 1, 2021. The Racial Justice Act for All, which was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom last month, makes the Racial Justice Act retroactive to anyone who was subjected to unfair convictions and sentences.
The case involved Akeem Simmons, who was convicted of an attempted murder in Los Angeles in 2018 of Danny Graves, an alleged drug dealer he had bought drugs from for several years. He was sentenced to life in prison plus an 20 years for enhancements.
The Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles found the RJA was violated in Simmons’ case when the prosecutor included in her rebuttal argument that Simmons “bragged about all the women he was able to fool with his good looks, and he admitted to having an ambiguous ethnic presentation and that people that don’t know him think he’s something other than Black.” The court said that comment violates the RJA “because it equates appellant’s skin tone and ‘ethnic presentation’ with deception, implying that he was not a credible witness because the color of his skin fooled women and confused strangers. The suggestion that a witness is lying based on nothing more than his complexion is as baseless as it is offensive.” The court also found that his lawyer was ineffective for failing to bring the violation to the attention of the trial court earlier.
The court did not overturn Simmons’ conviction and sentence but sent his case back to the trial court.
