AZ. Court : Racial Profiling Can Invalidate Criminal Charges
The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that where racial profiling resulted in criminal charges, the charges can be dismissed.
This would seem like a no-brainer, but the law has been that so long as police could establish that a traffic violation occurred, their reason for making the stop was irrelevant.
Justice Andrew Hurwitz wrote in the unanimous decision that a state can neither write laws that apply only to people of certain races, nor selectively enforce the law according to race, a practice commonly referred to as racial profiling. A state can no more make 'driving while Black' a crime by means of its enforcement than it could by express law," he wrote.
The defense lawer in the case had asked the trial court to require the state pay for an expert witness to statisically review the traffic stops and determine whether a disproportionate number of minority motorists were being pulled over. The Judge refused, ruling that so long as there was a traffic violation, the intent of the officer didn't matter.
The high court did not dismiss charges because of racial profiling; it ruled that such a dismissal is possible on constitutional grounds if the racial profiling allegations are proven in court, which Phillips has not yet done.
The opinion provides guidelines for trial courts in deciding whether expert witnesses should be appointed. One other note:
Phillips also filed a class-action civil lawsuit against DPS [Department of Public Safety], accusing the agency of racial profiling. Although DPS admitted no wrongdoing, it entered into a settlement in February, promising to gather data and take measures to avoid the practice.
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