SJC chief wants to know if minorities get ‘equal justice’
Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants said Thursday he has commissioned a probe into sentencing disparities for minority defendants in the state’s criminal justice system, saying Massachusetts should take “a hard look at how we can better fulfill our promise to provide equal justice for every litigant.”
Gants, speaking before the legal community at the John Adams Courthouse, cited data collected by the state Sentencing Commission that show the state imprisons African-American defendants eight times more than white defendants. Hispanic defendants are imprisoned 4.9 times more than whites, Gants said.
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