More than two-thirds of people exonerated in wrongful conviction investigations last year were Black, including three on death row, according to an annual report from the National Registry of Exonerations (NRE). The cases included the overturned convictions of two men — Sherwood Brown and Eddie Lee Howard Jr. — who were taken off Mississippi’s death […]
Criminal Justice
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Whose Second Amendment Rights? Black Gun Owners Respond to No Charges in Amir Locke’s Killing
After Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office landed convictions of police officers in the deaths of George Floyd and Daunte Wright, advocates hoped his office’s investigation into Amir Locke’s death would lead to similar results. Instead, Ellison and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced this week that Mark Hanneman, the police officer who fatally shot […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice
The U.S. Supreme Court Adds Its First Black Woman to the Bench
Ketanji Brown Jackson will be the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, concluding a contentious confirmation process and weeks of criticism from some Republican lawmakers. The Senate gave the stamp of approval to President Joe Biden’s nominee on Thursday afternoon with a vote of 53-47. Democrats unanimously supported Jackson, while 47 […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Biden Wants to Add $32 Billion to Police Funding — Is Federal Police Reform Dead?
Members of Congress have offered no shortage of ideas in recent years for reforming policing in America. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., proposed the Eric Garner Excessive Use of Force Prevention Act in 2019 to make constricting a person’s airway a civil rights offense. The same year, Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis., promoted the use of de-escalation […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice
What’s Behind the Wave of Convictions for Police and Vigilantes? It’s More Than Woke Jurors.
Juries in recent months have been handing down guilty verdicts against police officers and white vigilantes in a series of rare convictions for a legal system that historically has failed to render justice for Black victims. Last month, three white men in Georgia were convicted of committing a hate crime when they murdered Ahmaud Arbery, […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice
What Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court Appointment Would Mean for Black Americans
Ketanji Brown Jackson’s presence on the U.S. Supreme Court would not only diversify the nation’s highest bench with its first Black woman, it would add a perspective of the law that has rarely been heard in the court’s more than 230 years, legal experts say. President Joe Biden’s nominee is a former public defender and […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence
The Trayvon Generation: 10 Years After His Death, Classmates and Teachers Reflect on the Impact
Jerome Horton talks about the morning of Feb. 27, 2012, like he lived through it yesterday. It started with a call from his longtime friend Tracy Martin, who wondered if Horton had heard from Martin’s son, Trayvon. The 17-year-old had gone to a nearby 7-Eleven in Sanford, Florida, the night before, but when Martin opened […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice
Prosecutors Rarely Pursue Hate Crime Charges. Here’s Why Ahmaud Arbery’s Murder Was Different.
Two years after Ahmaud Arbery’s jog through a south Georgia neighborhood ended in his murder, the tragedy received a rare designation on Feb. 22, when the three white men who killed him were also convicted of executing a hate crime. A federal jury found that Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael, along with their […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
‘We Are Not Sub-Citizens’: Black Gun Owners Assert Their Rights after Amir Locke’s Killing
MINNEAPOLIS – In a scene that has become all too familiar to Black residents in this region, mourners gathered in a church sanctuary Feb. 17 to grieve the early death of a Black man and denounce the actions of the police who killed him. Relatives and friends of Amir Locke, who was shot by police […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice
The Supreme Court Debate Reveals the Unique Ways Black Women Are Questioned
When President Joe Biden announced last month that he will abide by his campaign promise to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court, it sparked a flurry of criticism, particularly among white male Republicans. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said that specifying a Black woman for the role is “offensive.” Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker charged […]