The Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a civil rights investigation into a directive by Minnesota’s Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCOA) that prosecutors take race into consideration when striking plea deals with criminal defendants.
In a letter dated May 2, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon, told Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty they will investigate if her office “engaged in a pattern of practice of depriving persons of rights, privileges or immunities secured or protect by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”
The investigation follows Moriarty’s recently adopted “Negotiations Policy for Cases Involving Adult Defendants.”
The policy urges prosecutors to consider race when formulating plea offers, stating that “racial identity… should be
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