Megan Reed was in the middle of cooking dinner when she was startled by someone repeatedly banging on the front door of her Columbus, Ohio, apartment. A neighbor alerted her that her youngest son, Sinzae Reed, was shot. Reed rushed out of their second-floor apartment in the Wedgewood Village Apartments complex with food still cooking […]
Christina Carrega
Christina Carrega is the criminal justice reporter at Capital B. Follow her on Bluesky @chriscarrega.bsky.social.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Mississippi Police Department Faces a $400M Federal Lawsuit for Shooting Man in Jaw
A Mississippi man who barely survived being shot in the mouth while six white Rankin County police officers held him and his friend during an alleged drug raid has filed a $400 million federal lawsuit. Michael Corey Jenkins, 32, and Eddie T. Parker, 35, both Black, say their civil rights were violated on Jan. 24 […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice
The Thwarted Promise of Black Women Prosecutors
When Kimberly M. Foxx was sworn in as the first Black woman in Illinois to lead the Cook County attorney’s office in 2016, she also joined the “Sisters Circle” with 20 other Black female prosecutors. Over Foxx’s two terms, she has seen the support group’s numbers fluctuate – yet members’ concerns remain the same. “In […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
Shooting of Black Teen Is a Symptom of Kansas City’s Racist History
Alvin Brooks remembers growing up as the only Black kid in an all white, but poor white, Leeds-Dunbar neighborhood during the 1940s in Kansas City, Missouri. Although he made friends, he was reminded that in other parts of the city he was not welcome. Sometimes the streetcar’s white motorman charged him a nickel to board […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
Sinzae Reed’s Admitted Killer Evades Homicide Charges
The mother of Sinzae Reed is furious after a grand jury decided not to file homicide-related charges against the man who admitted to killing her 13-year-old son last year. After two days of testimony this week, a grand jury in Columbus, Ohio, instead decided to file felony charges against Krieg Allen Butler, 37, of tampering […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
Black Men Continue to Be Overrepresented in Annual Wrongful Conviction Report
A majority of wrongful convictions have been tied to drug possession allegations that were brought on by corrupt police officers who targeted Black people, a new report revealed. The National Registry of Exonerations tallied 233 exonerations in 2022, of which a majority stemmed from patterns of misconduct by police officers. In addition, NRE researchers found […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Man Who Fatally Choked Jordan Neely Arraigned on Criminal Charge
The man who used a lethal choke hold on Jordan Neely inside a New York City subway car is facing a felony charge of second-degree manslaughter — but the Neely family’s attorneys say the charge doesn’t go far enough. Daniel Penny has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charge, which carries a maximum sentence of […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
A Year After Tragedy Gripped Buffalo, Its Black Community Waits For Promises to be Kept
The Rev. Diann Holt lived in a food desert in Cold Springs, the Blackest community in Buffalo, New York, for most of her life — until a racist and deadly mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket last year. “I got sick of being deprived of what I should have,” she says about her […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Families and Survivors of Police Brutality Continue Their Call to End Qualified Immunity
Four years ago, Vicky Lewis was having a heart-to-heart conversation with her 17-year-old son about his future. He was killed 24 hours later. High school senior Isaiah Lewis was just two months away from turning 18 and three weeks from graduating when he was fatally shot on April 29, 2019, by a police officer in […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration
How This Democrat Wants to Dismantle the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley wants to end the school-to-prison pipeline by passing legislation that would establish new federal grants to support schools and states committed to change. Schools across the country continue to implement unfair and discriminatory school disciplinary practices, such as suspension and expulsion, that affect Black children as early as preschool at disproportionate […]
