After spending more than three decades in prison, Kofi Modibo Ajabu believed he had exhausted all legal avenues to reduce his 240-year sentence. Ajabu was a college student when he was convicted along with two other men in the March 1994 stabbing deaths of two Indiana teenagers and one of their friends in what prosecutors […]
Christina Carrega
Christina Carrega is the criminal justice reporter at Capital B. Follow her on Bluesky @chriscarrega.bsky.social.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
From Fani Willis to Letitia James, Trump’s Enemies List Targets Black Women in Positions of Power
New York Attorney General Letitia “Tish” James did not fold when a federal grand jury in Virginia indicted her. Days after the Oct. 9 announcement, she took the stage at the United Palace in Manhattan to stump for New York City’s Democratic mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani. On the evening of Oct. 13, dressed in a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration, Politics & Policy
Cannabis Convictions Still Haunt Black Families. This Nonprofit Offers a Lifeline.
Sitting in a Virginia state prison cell, Bryan Reid would often slouch his shoulders, droop his chin, and pout his bottom lip — the posture of someone struggling to believe how his life had come to this. Before he was transferred in 2018 to Coffeewood Correctional Center in Mitchells, he was a proud father of […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Violence Against Women
She Got 27 Years for Killing Her Abuser. Judge Rules Oklahoma’s Survivors Act Won’t Free Her.
No one disputes that Tyesha Long shot and killed her ex-boyfriend nearly five years ago. But after spending almost three years in prison for manslaughter, Long’s hope to walk free under a new Oklahoma law meant to give domestic violence survivors a second chance, have been stumped. Long, 26, asked Oklahoma County District Judge Susan […]
Posted inNews, Politics & Policy
Chicago’s Black Immigrants Face New Wave of ICE Arrests and Uncertainty
CHICAGO — Olayemi Owoludun was still in high school when Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016. He was too young to vote, but not too young to feel its impact. A “terrified” friend who was an immigrant fell off the grid months after Trump’s first inauguration, he recalls. He was worried about his undocumented […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to 50 Months in Federal Prison
Hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was sentenced Friday to 50 months in federal jail following his conviction on prostitution charges. Combs, who turned a career as a music producer into a portfolio of businesses worth a billion dollars, was convicted on July 2 after prosecutors said he coerced women into sexual encounters with male escorts. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
She Nearly Died in a Domestic Violence Attack. Illinois Denied Her Victim Compensation.
Yolanda Carter was once an avid line dancer known for her smooth two-step. More than nine years ago, a domestic violence attack not only forced her to walk away from her beloved dance group, but it changed her life forever. It was around midnight on March 22, 2016, when Carter went to bed next to […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Incarceration, Politics & Policy
Cashless Bail Helps Keep Families Together. Trump Wants to Shut It Down.
Criminal justice advocates warn that President Donald Trump’s executive orders aimed at ending cashless bail policies will disproportionately impact low-income communities. Black and brown people, who are overrepresented in the criminal justice system, will suffer the most, they say. Black Americans are already over 25% more likely to be held in jail pretrial with bail […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Undocumented Black Communities Brace for Ripple Effects of Federal Takeover
As Washington, D.C., police are increasingly cooperating with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement, Black immigration groups fear it will put Black and brown people in other sanctuary jurisdictions at risk of being arrested and possibly deported. Amid a federal takeover late last week, the Trump administration reversed course and agreed to leave the police […]
Posted inPolicing, Politics & Policy
What Federal Control of D.C. Police Could Mean for Overpolicing in Black Communities
Once known as “Chocolate City” for its historically large Black population, Washington remains under partial federal control. The federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department under President Donald Trump marks the first time a commander-in-chief has seized control. Some 800 National Guard members were deployed to the city last week. Additionally, six Republican-led states — […]