Long before I joined the ACLU, I was just a skinny brown kid who grew up in the “Inland Empire” — a region of Southern California that includes 52 cities spread across Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. Even when I’ve moved away at different points of my life, the Inland Empire has always been a place that I’ve called home.

However, my younger self could never have imagined that the same field I played club soccer on at Riverside Poly High School was used for a Ku Klux Klan recruitment and cross-burning event less than a century earlier. I was unaware that I attended my high school homecoming a few streets down from where “The Birth of a Nation” — a horribly racist film that glorified the lynchings of Black Americans — once hosted its world debut at the Loring Opera House. Even as of a few months ago, I didn’t know that Riverside’s Hall of Justice sits fewer than two miles from where Lowell Elementary School — which primarily educated Black and Latinx students — was firebombed and destroyed during desegregation protests in 1965.

These are facts I learned about my home as a legal fellow with the ACLU. I am part of a team of attorneys who are bringing the first challenge to death penalty prosecutions under the landmark law known as the California Racial Justice Act (CRJA). We represent two Black men, Russell Austin and Michael Mosby, each of whom face the death penalty in Riverside County — one of the most prolific death-sentencing counties in the nation. Today, a Riverside Superior Court judge will determine whether our two clients will receive an evidentiary hearing under the CRJA. At an evidentiary hearing, we will introduce evidence to prove that our clients received unequal treatment compared to white people with similar cases and will argue that they should therefore be deemed ineligible for the death penalty.

The California Racial Justice Act’s Ambitious Goal

The CRJA has an ambitious goal: rooting out racism from the criminal legal system. This law allows defendants to challenge more surreptitious forms of implicit and institutional racism in their cases.

It’s important to underline just how significant the CRJA is. The Supreme Court decision in McCleskey v. Kemp closed off constitutional challenges that rely on showing the racist application of the death penalty. Instead, the court required a condemned person to prove that “the decisionmakers in his case acted with discriminatory purpose.” Otherwise, the court infamously said, a theory like Mr. McCleskey’s could open the entire criminal legal system to constitutional challenge for its racist operation. In his dissent, Justice William Brennan said such a concern exhibited a “fear of too much justice.” The CRJA takes direct aim at the court’s decision in McCleskey by allowing people to challenge racism in all forms — explicit, implicit, and structural — in the administration of the criminal legal system, without requiring them to take on the added burden of showing intent in their own cases.

Enabled by the CRJA, Mr. Austin and Mr. Mosby have introduced four statistical analyses from three scholars that reach the same conclusion: Riverside’s death penalty system more severely punishes Black people than any other racial group.

At each step of prosecutorial decision-making in Riverside County, Black defendants are on average treated more harshly than any other racial or ethnic group. In fact, one analysis found that Black defendants in Riverside are approximately nine times more likely to have the prosecution seek death and 14 times more likely to have death sentences imposed against them than white defendants whose cases are similar. Just as significant is the way that Riverside prosecutors have avoided seeking death sentences in homicide cases with Black victims. Cases with Black victims are 61 percent less likely to result in a death sentence than cases with white victims.

The Past is Inseparable from the Present

While these statistics are in themselves striking, they tell only a partial story of Riverside’s death penalty system. When the California legislature developed the CRJA, it acknowledged that in order to develop a truly fair and equitable criminal legal system, we have to be willing to understand how and why systems functioned unfairly and inequitably in the first place. In short, the CRJA stands for the notion that our criminal legal system’s past is inseparable from our criminal legal system’s present.

To help the court better understand the development and operation of Riverside’s unjust and racist capital punishment system, Mr. Austin and Mr. Mosby also introduced historical evidence that demonstrates a clear, cross-generational record of state-sponsored maltreatment and vigilante violence exacted against Black people in Riverside County.

Historical accounts show that proud members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and KKK-endorsed candidates once dominated Riverside’s local law enforcement and government offices. In positions of immense local influence, local government officials reinforced institutional segregation and designed an intricate system of oppression that harmed non-white Riverside residents throughout the 20th century. Even once legally sanctioned segregation was in the rearview, segregation continued, and more covert forms of racial and discrimination persisted in Riverside.

From the mid- to late-20th centuries, law enforcement raids brought terror into Black neighborhoods in Riverside. Even over the last few decades, Riverside law enforcement officials have faced several national controversies for killing and assaulting Black and Latinx people. The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office has time and again demonstrated an unwillingness to protect the lives of people of color by failing to seek criminal prosecutions of county officers for shooting unarmed victims.

Today, the Inland Empire’s law enforcement and criminal legal systems — which remain sources of immense distrust for many Black residents — disproportionately impose the death penalty against Black people. California’s death row population — the largest in the country — includes 127 people sentenced to death in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Nearly three quarters of those were people of color, including 43 Black people (roughly 34 percent).

We can’t tell an honest story about the Inland Empire — and we can’t understand how our criminal legal system operates — unless we include the violence and discrimination suffered by Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous people here.

If the far-reaching potential impact of the CRJA is to be realized, our courts must acknowledge that no form of racism, overt or covert, is legally acceptable. People in the Inland Empire — Mr. Austin and Mr. Mosby included — deserve an accessible legal system that takes responsibility for our society’s past failures and advances the creative solutions of the CRJA to build a more just, equitable future. Our legal system and its actors cannot be afraid of too much justice.

This year, alongside our partners, community activists, and volunteers, the ACLU SoCal fought for immigrants’ rights, privacy rights, to defend our reproductive rights, and more. No matter the issue, we continue to strive for a democracy that is just and equal for all. Here are some of our highlights of 2022.

JANUARY

Garland v. Gonzalez  

On January 11, 2022, Michael Kaufman, ACLU SoCal’s Sullivan and Cromwell Access to Justice Senior Staff Attorney, argued before the U.S. Supreme Court to defend immigrants’ right to a bond hearing. With co-counsel, Matt Adams of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, ACLU SoCal argued that immigrants should not be held indefinitely without bond hearings. Read more: Garland v. Gonzalez

FEBRUARY 

Deported Veterans 

On February 14th, we welcomed home Specialist (SPC) Mauricio Hernandez who despite having grown up in the U.S. since the age of 7 and enlisting in the military and serving on 160+ missions, was deported in 2010. SPC Hernandez is one of the countless deported U.S. veterans fighting for their right to stay in a country they call home. We join deported veterans and their efforts on calling the Biden administration to uphold their promise of bringing back our deported veterans and creating a fair and humane immigration process for all. 

MARCH

FBI v. Fazaga 

Back in 2011, Imam Yassir Fazaga sued the FBI for paying an informant to gather information on his congregation and other Muslims in Orange County because of their religious identity. The FBI thought they could target Muslim communities by saying that any information shared on the operation would result in a “risk to national security,” but this started a decade-long legal battle that is still going on to this day. 

On March 4th, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Fazaga can continue to fight in lower courts to hold the FBI accountable for its discriminatory surveillance of Muslim Americans. Follow the case. 

APRIL

2022 California Action Conference 

In April, we joined ACLU affiliates in California for our annual California Action Conference. We trained more than 250 Californians, and saw 50 Southern Californians lobby 16 of their state representatives in Sacramento, California. We fought for increased oversight of officer-involved deaths, to protect students from unnecessary interactions with law enforcement, and to limit police’s use of facial recognition technology. 

MAY

Arts Justice in Schools  

After more than three years fighting for equitable arts education in Los Angeles Unified School District, our Youth Liberty Squad helped pass the Arts Justice: Access and Equity Across the Disciplines and the District. The resolution strengthens the quality and quantity of arts education through collaborative efforts, such as increased partnerships and a community-led arts advisory council. 

“We as students have a right to consistent arts classes, a right to community, mental health resources, and a school that supports our creativity,” states Natalie Shtangrud, Youth Liberty Squad, Granada Charter High School. Read the press release. 

JUNE

Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization  

On June 24th, we saw the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that affirmed the constitutional right to abortion. Today, and every day, we fight for people’s right to an abortion and reproductive rights. We join countless organizers, activists, and community organizations across our state and the country to defend the right to a safe and legal abortion. Know your rights. 

JULY

Safer Streets for All 

The passage of Senate Bill (SB) 357, the Safer Streets for All Act allows people previously convicted of loitering “with the intent to commit prostitution” to clear their criminal records – making it easier to access safe housing and employment. SB 357 repealed a law that allowed police to profile and arrest Black, brown & trans people for decades – simply based on what they’re wearing or where they’re standing. This is a step forward for sex workers in California. 

AUGUST

My School My Rights 

With school back in session, it’s important for students, parents, and community members to know their rights in schools. The My School My Rights website, provides  resources and stories from real student leaders on their rights to expression, to wear their natural hair, to feel safe on their campuses, and much more. The updated website now includes resources in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. Visit My School My Rights. 

SEPTEMBER

Rutherford v. Pitchess 

On September 16th, a federal court judge ordered L.A. County to fix the massive backup in the jail’s Inmate Reception Center after county lawyers exposed the horrific treatment of people confined at the booking facility. Lawyers found inhumane conditions such as people chained to chairs for days, dozens sleeping head-to-foot on concrete, open defecation, and no sanitation. The L.A. County Jail is the largest jail system in the U.S. — and the world. It has been the subject of court oversight since 1978, when a federal court ruled in Rutherford v. Pitchess, finding that conditions violated the rights of those incarcerated. Read more. 

OCTOBER

2022 Bill of Rights Awards 

After two years of virtual programming, on October 16th, we held our annual Bill of Rights Awards in-person in Beverly Hills. We honored former ACLU SoCal attorney Ahilan Arulanantham, producers and directors Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter, and singer/songwriter and longtime ACLU SoCal supporter, Diane Warren, for challenging the status quo and daring to create a more inclusive world. Watch the 2022 Bill of Rights Awards. 

NOVEMBER

Midterm Election Wins 

Victory! We organized, we educated, we showed up to the polls for this year’s midterm election — and we won. Southern California voters said yes to housing justice by voting yes on Measure ULA (Los Angeles) and Measure H (Pasadena), yes to sheriff accountability by passing Measure A, and yes to Proposition 1, which amends the state constitution to affirm, as strongly as possible, Californians’ rights to access abortion and contraception. 

ACLU SoCal activists showed up to volunteer to get out the vote and collectively sent over 306,000 texts through our text banking efforts. We did this! Read our victory blog. 

DECEMBER 

As we look toward the next year, and the ACLU SoCal’s centennial celebration, we acknowledge that we could not do all we do without the tireless efforts and energy of volunteers, activists, and community partners. For that, we thank you. Fighting to protect our civil liberties is no easy task, but we know when we work together, we are stronger, and we can win. We are eager to continue championing civil liberties for all in 2023 — and for the next 100 years.