AZ Supreme Court Ruled Enhanced Sentencing Unconstitutional for Gang Ties

Arizona Supreme Court rules that Judges and prosecutors cannot impose harsher sentences on gang members who threaten others unless there’s a connection between the crime and the defendant’s membership in a gang.

In a unanimous opinion on Tuesday, the court’s seven justices struck down as unconstitutional a state law that enhances criminal sentences for gang members who threaten or intimidate people, ruling that the statute violates defendants’ due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. For such an enhanced sentence to be constitutional, the justices ruled, there must be a connection between the threats and the threats made by a defendant.

This is a huge depart from precedent where defendant's sentences were aggravated by gang ties even though the crime was unrelated.

Se the full article here.