SJC Sonia Sotomayor takes Asst US Atty Sam Ponder to task

AUSA Sam Ponder has some very specific thoughts on the criteria for a drug deal or at a minimum some kind of criminal malfeasance:

While questioning an African-American defendant in a drug case, Ponder asked: "You've got African-Americans, you've got Hispanics, you've got a bag full of money. Does that tell you - a light bulb doesn't go off in your head and say, this is a drug deal?"

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The case itself was appealed to the Supreme Court, in part because the defendant believed the question and the attitude denied him the right to a fair trial. The Supreme Court rejected the case, but Sotomayor took the unusual step of addressing this part of the transcript and the prosecutor who made the comment:

Sotomayor wrote that the prosecutor had "tapped a deep and sorry vein of racial prejudice that has run through the history of criminal justice in our nation." The question was "pernicious in its attempt to substitute racial stereotype for evidence," she added.

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LINK HERE

Wow, what a flagrant display of racial bias by that prosecutor! :furious: hopefully he gets sacked for that, and his other cases are looked at.

I am a big admirer of justice sotomayor, and so glad to see her call out this guy. I hope it happens more often - because you just know that for this one case where it is called out, there are probably many, many more cases of this happening that never get noticed.

Gardenlady said:

Wow, what a flagrant display of racial bias by that prosecutor! :furious: hopefully he gets sacked for that, and his other cases are looked at.

I am a big admirer of justice sotomayor, and so glad to see her call out this guy. I hope it happens more often - because you just know that for this one case where it is called out, there are probably many, many more cases of this happening that never get noticed.

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I agree GardenLady-apparently he is now under review.