Category: Criminal Justice Reform

— MADELINE HOLCOMBE and RAJA RAZEK, CNN (CNN)The family of Atatiana Jefferson, who was fatally shot through the window of her home, has filed a lawsuit against the city of Fort Worth and Aaron Dean, the former Fort Worth police officer who shot her. According to an amended complaint filed November 17 in the Northern District of […]

Police killed hundreds in Jefferson County, what was it about Bonita Carter that made a difference? — JOHN ARCHIBALD, AL .COM Reckon Radio presents: “Unjustifiable,” an investigative series from Pulitzer-prize winning columnist John Archibald and Roy S. Johnson examining an overlooked moment of civil rights history in the heart of the South. June 22, 1979, […]

Calls of justice for Quawan, the Louisiana teen found dead on Nov. 2, are intensifying, with many people pointing out the similarities between his visible injuries and those of Emmett Till. — KIRSTEN WEST SAVALI, ESSENCE Quawan Charles, 15, who was last seen alive leaving his home in Baldwin, Louisiana, on Oct. 30, with an […]

— KATIE SHEPHERD, THE WASHINGTON POST When Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two people and seriously wounded another man in August during racial justice protests in Kenosha, Wis., he used an assault rifle a friend had bought for him. At 17 years old, Rittenhouse was too young to have legally bought the Smith & Wesson […]

In all the time I’ve spent fighting for criminal justice reform, I’ve rarely seen a case as bad as Ronnie Long’s. — JASON FLOM, ESQUIRE The mood at the courthouse in Concord, North Carolina was tense. Ronnie Long, 20, a Black cement mason, was on trial for the rape of Sarah Bost, 54, a wealthy, […]

Court debts and lack of credit limit abilities to get driver’s licenses, find homes and get meaningful work — DAVID BENOIT, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL In 2013, Martize Tolbert walked out of prison and into a financial hole. Mr. Tolbert was arrested on drug and weapon charges as a teenager, then bounced in and out […]

— KATIE SHEPHERD, THE WASHINGTON POST On Thursday, the nation’s largest police union posted a photo to social media taken during the unrest in Philadelphia this week, where hundreds of protesters clashed with officers over the police killing of Walter Wallace Jr. The Fraternal Order of Police’s posts showed a Philadelphia police officer holding a […]

The countersuit claims Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly suffered “severe trauma, mental anguish and emotional distress” the night Breonna Taylor was killed — BENJAMIN VANHOOSE, PEOPLE One of the officers involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor is now suing her boyfriend for “battery, assault and emotional distress” on the night of the March 13 incident. A new […]

An anonymous statement released Thursday griped that jurors were only able to consider endangerment charges against one officer for shooting into Taylor’s neighbor’s apartment. — DYLAN LOVAN, AP, HUFFPOST LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A second person who served on the Breonna Taylor grand jury is criticizing Kentucky’s attorney general for the way the proceedings were […]

The initiative, the largest in the organization’s history, will support the creation of new monuments, as well as the relocation or rethinking of existing ones. — JENNIFER SCHUESSLER, THE NEW YORK TIMES The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the largest humanities philanthropy in the United States, has pledged to spend $250 million over five years to […]