Posted inCriminal Justice

Rasheem Carter’s Death Shows the Fault Lines of Jim Crow Still Run Through Mississippi

The investigation into the killing of Tiffany Carter’s son sheds light on a rigid pattern in which Black Americans find themselves at odds with the very institutions they’re supposed to trust. While Rasheem Carter’s death wasn’t the result of officer-involved violence — and while there are many unknowns about what happened — the case has […]

Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence

Racist Buffalo Shooter Pleads Guilty, but Healing for Families Is Uncertain

Buffalo, New York, residents expressed relief that justice will be served in state court after a self-proclaimed white supremacist pleaded guilty Monday to killing 10 Black people in a neighborhood grocery store this spring. But some are concerned that the many lingering questions about the horrendous attack will remain unanswered without a public trial. The […]

Posted inCriminal Justice, Gun Violence

The Reading List: How Black Buffalo Became the Target of White Supremacist Hate

The Tops grocery store where a gunman killed 10 people this month is now the site of one of the deadliest acts of racial violence in recent United States history. The rampage targeted a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, that has suffered generations of segregation, pollution, and neglect. The 18-year-old charged in the shooting […]

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

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 […]