State v. Pomianek
New Jersey Supreme Court
221 N.J. 66 (2015)
David Pomianek, Jr. and Michael Dorazo, Jr. (defendants) worked for a public-works department with Steven Brodie, Jr., who is black. Dorazo shut Brodie inside a chain-link storage cage, and Pomianek remarked, "you throw a banana in the cage and he goes right in," which Brodie understood as comparing him to a monkey. Brodie was released after three to five minutes. He had also previously seen the defendants lightly strike another black employee with bungee cords, which he believed evoked slavery. Pomianek and Dorazo were convicted of bias intimidation under a provision that criminalizes conduct whenever the victim reasonably perceives it as bias-based, and of official misconduct based on those convictions. They appealed, arguing the bias-intimidation statute was unconstitutionally vague.
Whether a criminal statute satisfies the Due Process Clause's fair-notice requirement when it imposes liability based solely on the victim's reasonable perception of bias, without requiring the defendant to have intended or known his conduct would be perceived that way.