Prosecutor Busted for Badgering Witnesses about Black Defendant's "Nationality"

In addition to hidden evidence, falsified statements and more nonsense, prosecutors seem to have found another way of jeopardizing a case: provoking a jury’s racial bias. According to the Seattle Times, Whitman County, Wa. prosecutors were found guilty of just that by repeatedly asking witnesses to identify a Black defendant’s “nationality.”

The Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the prosecutors acted improperly while handling the case of Tyler Terell Bagby. The report says Bagby was charged with burglary, assault, harassment and malicious mischief after punching someone at a frat party in 2018. His attorneys argued the swing was in self-defense.

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During the trial held the same year as the incident, Bagby’s identity was not contested. But at least a half dozen times at trial, a prosecutor asked witnesses to identify Bagby’s “nationality.”

Bagby, born in California, is an American citizen. But witnesses inferred questions about his nationality to be in reference to Bagby’s race, to which they responded that he was African American or Black, the court wrote.