An Alabama judge encouraged defendants who could not pay court fines to donate blood rather than spending time in jail, a US civil rights group has said.
“If you do not have any money and you don’t want to go to jail, consider giving blood today,” Judge Marvin Wiggins said in a recording released by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
Some of the 500 defendants gave blood to avoid jail, but their debt remained.
The practice violates the US Constitution, legal experts said.
Judge Wiggins declined to comment on the allegations when contacted by the New York Times.
“Far too often in Alabama, we find that your legal rights are tied to your bank account,” Sara Zampierin, a staff attorney in SPLC’s Montgomery, Alabama, office said in a statement on Tuesday.
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