Racial Injustice and Penal Code section 745
Please note that the judicial council form habeas corpus petition was amended Sept. of 2024 to include an end segment for Pen. Code section 745.
A close brother of mine asked if I would look into his case and see if I could find anything. New racial injustice statutes had come out and was wondering if it could be applicable to his situation. He was facing a third strike robbery, and happens to be Black. His co-defendants happened to be White.
The prosecutors offered one co-defendant 4 years and the other was offered 9 years as it was his second strike. The Black one of the trio was offered 136 years and 4 months to life. After the judge struck the strike, he was sentenced to 42 years and 8 months.
I could have left it at that and raised the blatant racism as grounds enough. But I wanted to hit every target so dug in deeper. The result of those findings is to put it mildly, grossly-outrageously-horrifically shocking.
We agreed that this needs to be available to all Blacks and if you are reading this because you heard of this site, it is because of the grassroots effort to get the word out through the prison system.
The Truth About California's Systemic Racism Against Blacks
No one had figured out how to prove what we all knew was occurring. No longer are numbers separate but equal. We joined them to show if they were equal what they would be. This page will explain how and provide the downloads to use for your case.
If the Black population in California was equal to the White population and we maintained the same rate of arrests and complaints for Blacks, or if we arrested Blacks at the rate we do Whites, this is what the numbers would look like:
The Law Regarding Black Racial Injustice is Found in Penal Code section 745
Pen. Code, § 745
(a) The state shall not:
seek or obtain a criminal conviction; or
seek, obtain, or impose a sentence;
on the basis of race…
A violation is established if the defendant proves, by a preponderance of the evidence, any of the following:
Alternative 1:
(a)(1) The judge;
an attorney in the case;
a law enforcement officer involved in the case; or
a juror…
exhibited:
bias; or
animus
towards the defendant because of the defendant’s race…
Definitions
The Oxford Dictionary defines:
exhibit: “2 manifest or deliberately display (a quality or a type of behavior): he could exhibit a saintlike submissiveness.
- show as a sign or symptom:patients with alcoholic liver disease exhibit many biochemical abnormalities.”
manifest: “display or show (a quality or feeling) by one’s acts or appearance; demonstrate: Ray manifested signs of severe depression.”
bias: “1 prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair: there was evidence of bias against foreign applicants | the bias toward younger people in recruitment | [in singular] : a systematic bias in favor of the powerful.
Animus: “2 motivation to do something: the reformist animus came from within the Party.”
Alternative 2:
(a)(3) The defendant was:
charged or
convicted of a more serious offense
than defendants of other races … who have engaged in similar conduct and are similarly situated, and
the evidence establishes that the prosecution more frequently sought or obtained convictions for more serious offenses against people who share the defendant’s race, … in the county where the convictions were sought or obtained.
Alternative 3:
(a)(4)(A) A longer or
more severe
sentence was imposed on the defendant
than was imposed on other similarly situated individuals convicted of the same offense, and
longer or more severe sentences were more frequently imposed for that offense on people that share the defendant’s race, … than on defendants of other races, … in the county where the sentence was imposed.
Note that (a)(3) uses the word “prosecution”, which is absent from (a)(4)(A).
RACISM IS SO DEEPLY ENTRENCHED IN THE MODERN CALIFORNIA LEGAL LANDSCAPE THAT IT MUST FIRST BE SHOWN THAT HISPANICS ARE WHITES
Hispanic is an ethnicity and is largely comprised of the White race. As used below “Other” includes the races such as Asian, Islander or native American.
Hispanics have always been considered the White race in our state. See “Every white male citizen of the United States, and every white male citizen of Mexico who shall have elected to become a citizen of the United States under the treaty of peace…” (Cal. Const. Art. II Right of Suffrage Section 1 (1849)) “We do not debar the Spanish, or the French, or the Italians from voting by the use of this word. They are darker than the Anglo Saxon race, but they are white men. He was, in favor of the distinct, expression, ‘every white male citizen,’ as used in the thirty different Constitutions of the Union.” (Debates on Constitutional Convention of 1849, p.72 ¶2) “It will be observed, by reference to the first section of the second Article of the Constitution of this State, that none but white males can become electors… On examination of the constitutional debates, it will be found… to exclude all inferior races.” (People v. Hall, (1854) 4 Cal. 399, 404)
STATISTICAL DATA ESTABLISHING DISPARATE TREATMENT OF THE BLACK RACE IN CALIFORNIA’S CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
To demonstrate the disparity in felony arrests between the Black and White populations in California, we can look at the data by creating a “common denominator” for both groups — not in the strict mathematical sense, but as a familiar way to create a fair basis for comparison: first, by imagining the Black population as equal in size to the White population, and second, by applying the White arrest rate to the existing Black population.
This material will be a little dense, but visual aids are provided after to assist in the understanding.
1. Scaling Black Arrests to Match the White Population Size
To establish a common denominator in terms of population, we can scale the Black population (2,237,044) up to equal the White population (30,426,953) from the 2020 Census. This allows us to see what the number of Black arrests would look like if Blacks were arrested at their current rate but had the same population size as Whites in California.
– 2020 Black Population: 2,237,044
– 2020 Black All Felony Arrests: 52,000
– 2020 Black Violent Arrests: 21,537
– Population Multiplier: 30,426,953 / 2,237,044 ≈ 13.6
Using this multiplier:
52,000 × 13.6 ≈ 707,200
21,537 × 13.6 ≈ 292,903
This calculation shows that if the Black population were as large as the White population and the rate of arrest remained the same, then 707,200 Black felony arrests would be expected with 292,903 claimed as Black violent felony arrests, compared to the actual 194,081 all felony arrests for Whites with their 70,064 violent felony arrests in 2020. This stark difference highlights the much higher arrest rate for Blacks.
Whites appeared to have committed 124,017 non-violent felonies, 36.1% were deemed violent in 2020.
Blacks appeared to have committed 30,463 non-violent felonies, 41.4% were deemed violent in 2020.
2. Scaling Black Complaints Sought to Match the White Population Size
Same logic and method as above but using the complaints sought data in 2020:
All felony complaints 46,834 × 13.6 ≈ 636,942 (Blacks) compare 180,409 (Whites)
Violent felony complaints 19,109 × 13.6 ≈ 259,882 (Blacks) compare 64,142 (Whites)
3. Scaling Blacks Down to Match the White Rates
Alternatively, we can use the White arrest, complaint and incarceration rate as a common denominator and apply it to the actual Black population, to see what the number of Black arrests, complaints and incarceration would be if both groups were arrested at the same rate.
– White Arrest Rate: 194,081 / 30,426,953 ≈ 0.00638 (or .64%)
– Expected Black Arrests at White Rate: 2,237,044 × 0.00638 ≈ 14,272
– White Violent Arrest Rate: 70,064 / 30,426,953 ≈ 0.00230 (or .23%)
– Expected Black Violent Arrests at White Rate: 2,237,044 x 0.00230 ≈ 5,145
– White Felony Complaints Rate: 180,409 / 30,426,953 ≈ 0.00593
– Expected Black Felony Complaints at White Rate: 2,237,044 x 0.00593 ≈ 13,264
– White Violent Complaint Rate: 64,142 / 30,426,953 ≈ 0.00211
– Expected Black Violent Complaint at White Rate: 2,237,044 x 0.00211 ≈ 4,716
– Whites Imprisoned Rate: 56,659 / 30,426,953 ≈ 0.00186
– Expected Black Imprisoned Rate: 2,237,044 x 0.00186 ≈ 4,161
4. The true level of Blacks incarcerated right now.
“The long existence of African slavery in this country gave us very distinct notions of what it was, and what were its necessary incidents. … Severer punishments for crimes were imposed on the slave than on free persons guilty of the same offences.” Violating “the essential distinction between freedom and slavery.” (Civil Rights Cases, (1883) 109 U.S. 3, 22)
For the 56,659 Whites (non-Blacks) in prison right now,
there would have to be 483,285 Blacks in prison. Compare actual 35,532
Inversely, if the Blacks were imprisoned at the same rate as Whites, then the Black
inmate population would be 4,161, not its present 35,532
Civil Rights Act of 1866, ch. 31, § 1, 14 Stat. 27 (1866) :
42 U.S.C. § 1981 (“(a) Statement of equal rights All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every State and Territory to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, penalties, taxes, licenses, and exactions of every kind, and to no other.
(c) Protection against impairment The rights protected by this section are protected against impairment by nongovernmental discrimination and impairment under color of State law.”)
