Epoch Times - Harmeet Dhillon: DOJ is investigating jurisdictions that consider the offender’s race in plea deals
Aired: 2025-05-07
Duration: 02:57


=== New Prosecutors and Race (02:56) ===

[00:00:01]  I believe that over the last many years we've had very sort of aggressive new prosecutors get elected into office with the promise of criminal justice reform, anti-police, and using their positions to right prior wrongs in our country related to race.
[00:00:22]  Now, I think we can all acknowledge that, you know, there have been some horrific episodes in our country relating to race.
[00:00:29]  I think we can also fairly acknowledge that those are largely in the past, with some exceptions.
[00:00:33]  And so the idea that what this Hennepin County, Minnesota, prosecutor Mary Moriarty announced as the official policy of her department, she cast it in some wishy-washy terms, but effectively the policy is it is appropriate for prosecutors to consider race in plea deals.
[00:00:53]  And so the race of the offender in the plea deals.
[00:00:56]  And again, The United States Constitution bars that.
[00:01:02]  Equal Protection Clause bars that.
[00:01:04]  And the United States Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that.
[00:01:07]  There are almost no instances in which it's appropriate to use race in government outcomes at all, and even in most private outcomes, for that matter, but not all.
[00:01:18]  And so I think it's shocking that someone would get a different plea offer.
[00:01:26]  Who committed a crime, same crime, based on their race?
[00:01:29]  What does that say to the victim?
[00:01:31]  And what does that say to the public?
[00:01:36]  We're going to be tough on certain people and not others based on their skin color, which they can't control.
[00:01:40]  It's an immutable characteristic.
[00:01:42]  It's also subject to scrutiny, that kind of analysis.
[00:01:46]  And so what I've learned since sending a letter to the Hennepin County prosecutor about her policy, saying we're opening up an investigation into a pattern and practice of illegal race-based discrimination in Hennepin County, We have heard very troubling incidents of very lenient on crime plea agreements that appear to be racially motivated.
[00:02:14]  And what I've also heard is that this sub-Rosa policy is happening in other jurisdictions as well.
[00:02:20]  So, in my opinion, this is deeply troubling, and we will be investigating jurisdictions that are using race in sentencing.
[00:02:28]  Because, look, there has been a time in our country, dark days, that precipitated the civil rights era, where people were treated differently because of their skin color.
[00:02:41]  Black men were lynched and hung from trees.
[00:02:43]  There are some dark episodes in our country, and that's what occasioned the civil rights movement.
[00:02:48]  Turning that around on the other side doesn't correct the sins of the past.
[00:02:53]  It simply perpetuates these wrongs against different people who don't deserve that.