State Attorney General Creates Unit to Ensure Proper Convictions

Gov. Newsom Announces 20-State Alliance for Reproductive Rights

By Olivia Wynkoop Bay City News Foundation

California is one of 20 states that has committed to protecting and expanding reproductive rights in a new coalition, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday.

By Keith Burbank Bay City News

Fewer people may be wrongfully convicted in California following the launch Friday of a postconviction justice unit in the state Department of Justice.

The unit will in part work in concert with district attorneys’ offices around the state to resolve wrongful or improper convictions as well as identify people who could have their sentences reduced.

The unit also plans to promote the best practices for post-conviction justice work across the state. Some jurisdictions already have post-conviction or exoneration units.

“Our criminal legal system is not infallible,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said at a news conference Friday morning in Oakland. “It is not perfect.”

The new effort is about seeking the public’s trust, Bonta said.

The California Department of Justice has never had such a unit and it has been something Bonta has been working on since he was appointed to the office in 2021. The unit will start its work by reviewing cases in which state prosecutors won convictions.

Since 1989 more than 3,000 exonerations have occurred nationwide, Bonta said, citing The National Registry of Exonerations.

More than 280 exonerations have occurred in California since 1989, according to the registry. The people exonerated lost a total of more than 2,000 years behind bars.

Tens of thousands of people nationwide have been falsely convicted and are wrongfully incarcerated, according to estimates, Bonta said.

People wrongfully convicted often come from racially and economically disadvantaged or marginalized communities and “do not have the resources to mount a meaningful defense,” Bonta said.

Two people from the criminal law division in the California Department of Justice currently make up the post-conviction unit. Bonta is hiring for the unit.

It is not taking any cases now until more staff members are in place, Bonta said.

New evidence may come to light, mistakes may surface and sentencing rules may change, leading to the need to reevaluate a case, state prosecutors said.

“Nobody should serve time for a crime they didn’t commit,” Bonta said.

As part of the Reproductive Freedom Alliance, governors supporting abortion rights have vowed to work together to prevent women losing access to the procedure and other forms of reproductive health care, like contraception.

Prompted by Newsom, the alliance allows governors to frequently coordinate on how to safeguard abortion rights in their states -- whether that be discussing budget decisions or upcoming bills introduced in state legislatures -and collectively respond to states pushing legislation that does the opposite.

As of Tuesday morning, governors from blue and purple states have joined so far, like New York, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The alliance formed after the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade prompted some states to bar or limit abortions and other reproductive health care practices. An estimated 36 million women have lost access to reproductive care since the court’s decision, according to the alliance.

“In the face of this unprecedented assault by states hostile to abortion rights and their enablers in the courts, we are pledging to work together to strengthen abortion firewalls across America. This fight isn’t over,” said a joint statement by the governors, who represent almost 170 million people around the country.

The alliance builds on a multistate commitment between the

and the Department of the Treasury: Black Taxpayers Are Targeted for Audit More Than Others

By Paul Cobb Special to California Black Media Partners

As the publisher of the Oakland Post, I am disappointed with recent mainstream media coverage and editorials trying to make tabloid news out of the appointment of Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland) as chair of the California Assembly Budget Subcommittee #5 on Public Safety.

Bonta, a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus, was recently appointed chair by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, and some reporters and newspaper editors around California have baselessly made the case that the assignment is a conflict of interest because she is married to Attorney General Rob Bonta and her committee oversees funding for the state Department of Justice.

As journalists, we have a responsibility to report on conflicts of interest and hold public officials accountable for any improprieties.

If, along the way, Bonta engages in activities that betray the voters’ trust, reporters covering her office have every right to investigate and expose those actions.

However, it is equally important to exercise caution and avoid making unfounded accusations that could damage the reputation of public officials.

Speaker Rendon has stated that the Legislature’s budget process is designed with checks and balances to ensure that the best possible budget is passed.

According to him, no elected official can ever personally or financially benefit from the budget process. Continued on page 9 states of California, Oregon and Washington last year, when West Coast governors stated that they would collectively defend abortion care and respond to states threatening to take the procedure away.

Last year Newsom also signed off 13 abortion protection bills, including a constitutional amendment and a $125 million reproductive health package in preparation for more women to visit California for abortions.

Newsom said the alliance is a “moral obligation” and a “firewall” to protect providers and patients from attacks against abortion access.

“California has long been a leader in reproductive rights, but we can’t do it alone. We have gathered a coalition of bipartisan governors to commit to reproductive freedom, and a coalition this size -- 20 and counting -- has never been done before,” Newsom said in a statement.

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Senior

According to Stanford RegLab, Black taxpayers receive IRS audit notices at least 2.9 times more frequently than non-Black taxpayers and possibly as much as 4.7 times more often.

The new study included research by Daniel E. Ho, the William Benjamin Scott and Luna M. Scott Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, faculty director of the Stanford RegLab, a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Hadi Elzayn, a researcher at the Stanford RegLab, Evelyn Smith, Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan, and Arun Ramesh, a pre-doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago; Jacob Goldin, a professor of tax law at the University of Chicago; and economists in the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Tax Analysis.

The researchers concluded that the disparity “is unlikely to be intentional on the part of IRS staff.”

The team’s research showed that a set of internal IRS algorithms causes racial differences in audit selection. Goldin compared them to the recipe for Coca-Cola: “It’s completely secret.”

To better understand this audit selection bias, the research team modeled the racial impact that various alternative audit selection policies might have.

The result showed how the IRS could change its secret algorithm to make it less unfair to people of different races.

“The IRS should drill down to understand and modify its existing audit selection methods to mitigate the disparity we’ve documented,” Ho said.

“And we’ve shown they can do that without sacrificing tax revenue.”

Although there have been longstanding questions about whether the IRS uses its audit powers somewhat, Ho said it was challenging to study because tax returns are private.

The IRS’s approach to audit decisions was confidential.

That changed when, on his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order

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