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GROUP TARGETS LAW
Michael Banyard, 32, is a third-striker doing 25 years to life for possessing 0.1 grams of cocaine. He says he was offered a plea bargain of 32 months in prison, but he took hes chance with the jury and lst. His prior offenses were robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.

Questions of Color

Opponents see bias in third-strike process; D.A. says it's fair
By Wendy Thomas Russell
Staff Writer
Is three-strikes plea bargaining racially biased? With so many third-strikers given the chance to escape the law's "mandatory" 25-year-to-life prison term, some opponents say prosecutors' decisions to plea bargain have less to do with a defendant's prior record than with the color of the defendant's skin.
Melvin Farmer, a black third-striker whose Madera County drug conviction was overturned in 1997 on a technicality, says he's concerned about the high number of minorities tangled up in the law -a percentage much higher than the proportion of minorities in the general prison population.
At the Long Beach courthouse, the Press-Telegram was able to examine the case files of 191 third-strikers sent to prison for 25 years to life during the law's first five years.
Fifty-six percent were identified as black, 19 percent were Latino, 11 percent were non-Latino white and 6 percent were of other races. Races of the remaining 8 percent were not disclosed.
The figures are strikingly different from California's general prison population, where latest figures show 39 percent Latino, 30 percent non-Latino white, 26 percent black, and 5 percent other races.
Farmer says he would like to ask Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti how he chooses which three-strikes defendants are offered plea bargains.
Richard Banales, 32, holds up his Lancaster State Prison I.D badge. The third-striker is serving time for possession of $1.50 worth of heroin. His prior offenses were multiple burglaries. Banales says he was offered nine years on the drug charge but he turned down the deal.
"What is your criteria, your policies and your procedures in determining it?" Farmer asks.
Garcetti, who's running for re-election, says head deputies in each of the county courthouses review their three-strikes cases and offer plea deals to those deemed deserving, based on their entire histories.
A level of oversight is supplied by a panel of five directors who "make sure there is seeming consistency," Garcetti says. The directors, appointed by Garcetti, supervise the head deputies in each courthouse.
"I'm satisfied that my prosecutors are offering (deals) in a fair way. The people we hire do the fair thing."
Prosecutors deny racism outright, saying there are lots of reasons to "strike strikes in the furtherance of justice," as the law allows, and that race is not one of them. It's hard to gauge whether priors are ignored more often for white defendants, given the unknown number of defendants who turn down plea bargains.
In interviews with the Press-Telegram, several minority third-strikers in Lancaster State Prison acknowledged that they were made offers but refused to take them:
Michael Banyard, a 32-year-old black inmate, says he had a robbery and an assault on his record before he was convicted of possessing a tenth of a gram of cocaine in 1996 and sentenced to 25 years to life, He says his Los Angeles prosecutor had offered him a deal of 32 months in prison, but Banyard took his chances at trial, maintaining the drugs were planted on him by another man.
"I knew I didn't do it,"he says. "So I didn't take the deal."
He lost at trial.
So did Richard Banales, 35, who was sentenced in November 1998 for possessing $1.50 worth of heroin, Banales, a Latino with several 1991 burglaries on his record, says he was offered nine years on the drug charge. But he, too, said the drugs were someone else's. He was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life.
Johnny McKinney, 49, was sentenced five years ago for stealing plastic containers from a Los Angeles store. A black man who had been convicted of several burglaries and a robbery, he says he turned down a nine-year offer and now is serving 25 years to life.
"It's ridiculous to me," says McKinney, still reeling from his fate. "It's not fair to me. Next Page ->
 
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