COURT LETTING 4 OFFENDERS APPEAL BASED ON PROFILING TRENTON -- A state appeals court said Wednesday that four defendants convicted of drug offenses after traffic stops by state troopers may use racial profiling information for new appeals or to have their trials reopened. Courts have previously ruled that evidence of racial profiling can be introduced at a defendant's initial trial. State lawyers argued that two of the defendants whose cases were ruled upon Wednesday had waived the right to reopen their cases because they had pleaded guilty. They also argued that defendants in two other cases never raised concerns about discrimination during their trials and should not be allowed to do so now. The appellate judges said that defendants in each case have a legitimate right to use profiling information in light of the 1999 report by the Attorney General's Office confirming that the practice had occurred and was a problem. As a result, lawyers for the four defendants will be allowed to seek more documentation and perhaps get depositions from witnesses in an effort to show the traffic stops that resulted in their clients' arrests should not have occurred. The judges said their decision did not free the convicts nor reverse their convictions or sentences. The judges also said there was no evidence the trials or the plea bargain agreements were unfair. Attorney General John Farmer said last week that his decision to make public thousands of pages of documents related to racial profiling documents does not mean his office will abandon prosecutions in drug cases. However, he said criminal cases and civil lawsuits may be dropped or settled if newly disclosed information is found to have a bearing on specific cases.
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