A New Jersey bias crime law that applied based solely on the victim’s perception of bias, even if that was not the defendant’s motivation, was struck down as unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court on March 17.
State v. Pomianek concerned the use of New Jersey’s bias-intimidation statute in connection with an incident in which a black man was locked in a cage by a white co-worker and another white co-worker allegedly remarked, “‘Oh, you see, you throw a banana in the cage and he goes right in,’” according to the Supreme Court’s opinion.
