California became the first state to allow all felons to challenge their convictions for racial bias this year, a change that is flooding courts with claims and straining public defenders’ offices statewide.
Convictions, sentences, and evidence can all be called into question under California’s Racial Justice Act if defendants can show either explicit or implicit bias was a factor.
When the act passed in 2020, it applied only to new cases. But since then, its scope has expanded, first to apply retroactively for death penalty defendants, and then in January to all felons convicted at any time.
The RJA doesn’t …