Justices admonish federal prosecutor for racial comments

WASHINGTON - Two U.S. Supreme Court justices - Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer - took the rare step of admonishing a federal prosecutor from Texas on Monday after reading a racially inflammatory statement he made while questioning a defendant in a drug case.

Sam Ponder, an assistant U.S. attorney working in San Antonio office of the Western Texas district court, invoked race and ethnicity at a 2011 trial.

"You've got African-Americans, you've got Hispanics, you've got a bag full of money. Does that tell you - a light bulb doesn't go off in your head and say, 'This is a drug deal?' " Ponder asked during cross-examination.

In an opinion written by Sotomayor, the two justices declared that "the prosecutor here tapped a deep and sorry vein of racial prejudice that has run through the history of criminal justice in our Nation."

"It is deeply disappointing to see a representative of the United States resort to this base tactic more than a decade into the 21st century," Sotomayor and Breyer wrote. "We expect the Government to seek justice, not to fan the flames of fear and prejudice."

Despite the controversy, the bottom line didn't change: The Supreme Court denied Charles Calhoun's appeal of his drug conviction. Calhoun had argued that the prosecutor's racial comments violated his constitutional right to equal protection under the law.

In a telephone interview, Ponder said he regretted the way the question came out.

"I should have said you're in a room with a bunch of strangers," Ponder told the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News.

Trial testimony indicated that Calhoun traveled from Houston to San Antonio with a friend and met another group in a hotel, where the defendant's friend exchanged a bag of money. The defendant said he did not know they were selling drugs.

Ponder said he was expressing skepticism of Calhoun's story that he had nothing to do with the drug deal.

"I can't disagree with the idea that race or ethnicity have nothing to do with committing a crime," Ponder said.

The Supreme Court denied hearing the case, with Sotomayor and Breyer filing a separate, concurring opinion. The court admonished Ponder for his words, but concluded the question did not affect the outcome of the case.