Pass the judgy on the left hand side
Weeding out the non criminals.
About time.
More than 60,000 cannabis convictions in Los Angeles County are set to be overturned, thanks to computer algorithms. California passed the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), also known as Prop 64, in 2016. As a result, folks over 21 years of age can legally grow and consume the devil's lettuce for recreational use in the US …
That is his is retrospective. Does that his mean that overturning okd conictions will open up the possibility of compensation for those having paid fines or suffered consequences from arrest such as loss of their job etc?
I can see some litigation coming when it's decided who should be sued.
I doubt it - I suspect either they'll rely on the "it was a crime at the time, so this is just a writing off of criminal misdeeds" or the legislation to enact this will have provisions regarding this.
Saying that, I'm sure a lawyer would be willing to try. There's enough people for a class action...
when it's decided who should be sued
Let me make it easy for you. They can't sue the main instigator because he is dead. On 17 June 1971, Richard Nixon got it going with a speech where he declared drug abuse to be "public enemy number one". He created a special action office to combat it.
What was the motivation?
Well I suspect that, although Watergate had not happened at that point, he was already a crook but the biggest motivation may have been they the perception was that the biggest users were "African Americans" and other people with too much melanin. Certainly the incarceration records show that it was a heavily used tool in the attempts to keep them in in their place.
Pretty sure they would have written the law so all it did was expunge the past records but not leave the state liable for people to sue. After all, they were convicted of something that was a crime at the time they did it, so they can hardly argue unfair prosecution like e.g. someone whose conviction was overturned by DNA evidence proving their innocence.
We need to see the algorithm - does it take the persons skin color (sic) into account? Throughout the US, if you are black and high you are much more likely to be convicted so we should see a black majority of of convictions eliminated ... but I wonder how it's going to work?
I hope that it's fair but I'm not going to assume that it is.