A long overdue reckoning for Henrietta Lacks — the Black woman whose cancer cells led to breakthroughs in the field but were harvested without her consent — has been slow but steady in recent years. It took decades for her relatives to learn that her tissue had been used for research and for them to […]
Courts
Posted inCourts, Culture, History
S.C. Court Victory Grants Gullah Geechee Temporary Access to Blocked Cemetery
Julia Scott is disappointed. Despite a judge granting her and other Gullah Geechee residents in St. Helena Island, South Carolina, access to the centuries-old Big House Cemetery, they must give the property owners — who put up a gate to block the entrance — written notice first. “It’s a start, but I am not pleased […]
Posted inCourts, Economic Development, Eminent Domain, History, Politics & Policy, Rural Issues
Georgia Is Letting a Railroad Seize Land a Black Family Has Owned For 100 Years
SPARTA, Ga. — In 1850, Andrew Benjamin Tarbutton enslaved 25 people in central Georgia. A year later, he purchased more than a dozen additional people off the docks in Savannah and marched them toward his home, setting the foundation for his family’s generational wealth. Four generations later, a railroad company owned by one of his […]
Posted inCourts, Politics & Policy
Federal Court Declines to Rehear Marilyn Mosby’s Perjury and Mortgage Fraud Case
Marilyn Mosby won’t get a do-over in her perjury and mortgage fraud case. A federal appeals court has denied a request to rehear the former Baltimore state’s attorney’s appeal. The U.S. Attorney’s Office and Mosby’s attorneys had asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit to take up the case. Yet, no judges […]
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 inCourts
Fani Willis Responds to Being Removed From Trump RICO Case
When Capital B Atlanta spoke with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in August, she strongly objected to the criticism that her case against President Donald Trump for alleged election interference was expensive and unsuccessful. “That’s incorrect, that they didn’t yield the results. The case against President Trump is ongoing, and it’s in the [Georgia] […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice
Lil Nas X’s Legal Battle Sheds Light on Charge Stacking
Many were stunned when footage surfaced this summer that appeared to show Lil Nas X walking naked along Los Angeles’s Ventura Boulevard. It was shortly before 6 a.m., and he was rapping a verse from the song “Monster.” “So let me get this straight, wait, I’m the rookie? But my features and my shows 10 […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice, Policing
Officer Convicted in Breonna Taylor Case Sentenced to 33 Months
A former Louisville, Kentucky, officer was sentenced Monday to 33 months in prison for violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, who was killed during a no-knock raid in 2020. The officer, Brett Hankison, fired 10 bullets that did not strike or kill Taylor, who was a 26-year-old first responder. Yet, he was indicted in […]
Posted inCourts, Politics & Policy
Justice Jackson Warns Supreme Court Is Hastening Democracy’s Downfall
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson continues to break the fourth wall as the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. And she has made one thing plain: There are moments when she sees the majority opinion as an “existential threat to the rule of law.” Jackson has often been a unique voice of dissent when […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice, Partner Content, Public Safety, Violence Against Women
For Black Women,‘Diddy’ Verdict is a Reminder of Justice Denied
Originally published by The 19th A raucous scene unfolded outside the New York City courthouse where a jury Wednesday acquitted Sean “Diddy” Combs of the most serious charges — sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy — against him during a six-week trial in which witnesses painted the rap mogul as a monster who preyed on vulnerable […]