UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. ALEJANDRO GARCIA-LAGUNAS
US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Diaz, Sept. 1, 2016,
Evidence – Ethnic/racial stereotypes – Officer’s expert testimony that “Hispanic drug traffickers” are “very modest living” because “they send the majority if not all of the proceeds back to their native countries” was an improper “injection of a defendant’s ethnicity into a trial as evidence of criminal behavior.”

(Dissent – Davis – The government hasn’t met burden of proving unconstitutional appeal to ethnic bias was harmless)
Continue reading →