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 […]
Criminal Justice
Posted inCriminal Justice, Juvenile Justice, Partner Content, Public Safety
Juvenile Detention Centers: No School, No Fresh Air and Isolated
This story was originally published by MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Subscribe to their newsletter here. In the hours after 17-year-old David was locked in housing unit H, voices filtered into his cell. The sound came from multiple places at once: the seams of the door, the vent by the ceiling, the walls themselves. They knew he’d just […]
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 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, Culture, Higher Education
Hazing Death Prompts Soul-Searching for Divine Nine
The calls, texts and emails have been pouring in. Since news broke in late February that a 20-year-old student at Southern University died in what police called “a fraternity hazing incident,” messages and voicemails continue to fill the inbox of filmmaker Byron Hurt. Hurt heard from some of these same people three years ago, when […]
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 inGun Violence, Health, Health Equity, Partner Content
A Surgical Team Was About To Harvest This Man’s Organs — Until His Doctor Intervened
ST. LOUIS — Lying on top of an operating room table with his chest exposed, Larry Black Jr. was moments away from having his organs harvested when a doctor ran breathlessly into the room. “Get him off the table,” the doctor recalled telling the surgical team at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital as the […]
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 inHigher Education, Public Safety
HBCU Lockdowns Lifted After Day of ‘Terroristic Threats’
Several Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the country have lifted lockdowns after a series of threats. Early Thursday morning, Hampton University and Virginia State University said they received terrorist threats. Later, the list grew as Alabama State University, Clark Atlanta University, Southern University in Louisiana, and Bethune-Cookman in Florida reported threats. Spelman College ordered […]