Criminal Justice
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New York City to Honor Revolutionary Trans Activist Marsha P. Johnson With Monument
The world’s first monument to transgender activists, announced Wednesday in New York City, will pay tribute to two women of color, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, for their roles in leading the gay rights movement. The permanent installation will be on display in Greenwich Village, not far from the Stonewall Inn, site of the…
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Tennessee Church Shooter Sentenced to Life Without Parole
It took a Tennessee jury less than two hours of deliberation to sentence Emanuel Kidega Samson for his fatal role in a shooting at a Nashville church. The Tennessean reports that the 27-year-old will spend the rest of his life in prison after he was found guilty of first-degree murder and 42 other counts in…
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Justice Clarence Thomas Slams Women Who Have Abortions as Heartless Eugenicists
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas slammed women who have abortions as heartless “eugenicists” in a 20-page opinion Tuesday opposing the high court’s majority decision not to overturn a lower court’s ruling that blocked Indiana abortion restrictions that would have stopped women from aborting due to a fetus’ sex, race or disability. According to Newsweek, the…
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Missouri Dangerously Close to Becoming First State Without Access to Abortion Clinics
Last week, Gov. Mike Parson—in his efforts to position Missouri as “one of the strongest pro-life states in the country”—signed legislation that makes any doctor who performs an abortion within the state subject to up to 15 years imprisonment. But if the state’s health department has its way, abortions won’t even have to be banned…
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Held for More Than a Year in a Men’s Prison, North Carolina Finally Agrees to Transfer Trans Inmate to Women’s Facility
After holding a trans woman inmate for more than a year in a men’s prison, North Carolina has announced that it will finally move Kanautica Zayre-Brown to a women’s facility. The surprise decision came on Friday afternoon with a letter from the state’s Department of Public Safety. DPS, which had come under the threat of…
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Blow Struck: Federal Judge Blocks Mississippi’s ‘Hearbeat’ Abortion Law
Down goes Frazier—at least, for now, when it comes to Mississippi’s new so-called heartbeat law, which bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. I n a strongly worded ruling Friday, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction barring enforcement of the law that makes abortion illegal after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can…
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Fight’s On: ACLU, Planned Parenthood Sue to Stop Alabama’s Virtual Abortion Ban
Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union on Friday filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn Alabama’s law that bans abortions except in cases of “serious” health risk to the mother, saying the law is patently unconstitutional. The legal counterattack, which was promised after Alabama’s senators gave a final OK to the bill almost…
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God's Property: Florida Lawmaker Says God Told Him to Reintroduce Anti-Abortion Bill Modeled After Alabama's
Since passing its anti-abortion law—a law so reprehensible that cities like Los Angeles have subsequently banned travel to the state—Alabama has become the bane of the entire universe. Not to be outdone, the Pensacola News Journal reports that a Florida lawmaker is so impressed by Alabama’s commitment to punishing women for owning ovaries that he’s…
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Philadelphia DA Accuses Judge of Bias, Says Meek Mill Should Get New Trial
Meek Mill’s legal woes have not only been lengthy, but have provided a textbook example of just how deeply flawed our criminal justice system is. But after years of bad news, the Maybach Music signee might finally be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. USA Today reports that on Wednesday, Philadelphia District…
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Michigan to Pay $860,000 in Lawsuit Over Prison Guards Who Bet on a Woman Inmate’s Suicide
How much is an incarcerated person’s life worth? At one Michigan jail, about the cost of a Subway sandwich. That’s what corrections officers wagered in response to a suicidal inmate, 25-year-old Janika Edmond, who threatened to kill herself—and requested help from guards—before eventually hanging herself in a prison shower. The Michigan Department of Corrections settled…