CA AB1958

Amends the California Racial Justice Act (Section 745 of the Penal Code) to compare defendants to "similarly situated individuals who have engaged in similar conduct" rather than those "convicted of the same offense" when evaluating sentencing disparities

Expands the law's application to explicitly cover plea negotiations, plea outcomes, diversion programs, and other alternative dispositions in addition to trials

Allows defendants to request data previously disclosed in other criminal cases for use in their racial discrimination claims, which courts must grant unless the data has no relevance to current charges

Clarifies that defendants can prove disparity claims using statistical evidence, aggregate data, or non-statistical evidence without needing to present both types of evidence

Places burden on prosecutors to prove race-neutral factors explain any established disparity, requiring affirmative evidence rather than theoretical explanations