California’s Racial Justice Act, passed in 2020, states that the “state shall not seek or obtain a criminal conviction or seek, obtain, or impose a sentence based on race, ethnicity, or national origin.” At the time of its passage, it applied only to verdicts issued after January 1, 2021, but was amended as “RJA for All” in 2022 to apply to all cases decided before 2021.
Assemblymember Ash Kalra, the RJA’s sponsor, amended it again this year when he introduced AB 1071 in February, “clarifying changes to the procedures for claims under the Racial Justice Act (RJA) to ensure uniform implementation and resolve confusion in the courts.”
The bill cites cases “in which courts misconstrue the statute to apply procedural barriers or otherwise impose impediments to relief, discordant with the legislative intent of the RJA, and improperly insulate convictions and sentences tainted by racial bias.” It states that the “RJA’s threshold to secure counsel is extremely low, and yet courts have denied counsel to litigants raising RJA claims far more than they have appointed counsel. This bill clarifies that the court shall appoint counsel to all indigent post-conviction litigants who request counsel, and whenever the State Public Defender requests.”
The bill passed the Assembly last week and is now in the state Senate.