State Attorney Jack Campbell and the U.S. Justice Department have reached an agreement to implement nondiscrimination trainings and other measures after the Second Judicial Circuit was hit with discrimination allegations in 2023.
WFSU uncovered in May that the Department of Justice was investigating Campbell’s office after reports that the office may have been denying plea agreements for Hispanic defendants charged with driving without a driver’s license.
In a Memorandum of Understanding signed on June 20th, the DOJ acknowledges it did not make a finding of discrimination.
However, both Campbell’s office and the DOJ have agreed that the state attorney’s office must take several nondiscrimination steps, including adopting a specific Nondiscrimination in Prosecution Policy that will include “regular training at least annually on nondiscrimination in prosecution,” and a public complaint process for alleged violations.
The office is also required to send letters to defendants who may have been impacted by the policy, conduct new trainings of all employees within 120 days, and meet with DOJ on a quarterly basis to discuss their progress.
The accusations started when Mackenzie Hayes, a former assistant prosecutor in the circuit’s Monticello office, told progressive media site OurTallahassee she found a sentencing guideline sheet on the wall that included language seeming to instruct prosecutors to exclude Hispanic people from diversion programs for driving without a license. After the memorandum was released, Hayes told WFSU that she is happy with the agreement.
“I’m proud to have contributed to a first step to ensure that no one else in Tallahassee and its surrounding communities is treated more harshly by Jack Campbell’s office based on their race ever again,” she said.
In an interview with WFSU, Campbell said he is glad that the inquiry found no instances of discrimination in his office.
"I understand the community's concern. I was, you know, terribly impacted when that happened. It's probably the worst thing in my professional career, and I was glad that, you know, we've gone and their examination has found that there's no evidence of discrimination, and I'm glad that we can take these steps to make sure that we fairly and appropriately represent the community," he said.
As far as notifying people who may have been effected by the policy, he said his office has sent letters already to hundreds of people who received driving without a valid license citations since 2017. However, the office has only sent the notifications in English. He said they plan to rectify that in coming weeks by sending communications out in English and Spanish.