Criminal Justice
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Mississippi Mayor Offers Drug Dealers and Gang Members $10,000 to Get the Hell Out of His City
If you’re a drug dealer, “wannabe criminal” (apparently the pros are exempt) or gang member in Clarksdale, Miss., now’s your time to cash out because Mayor Chuck Espy has $10,000 with your name on it. In his efforts to eradicate crime in the city, Espy says you ain’t gotta go home, but you gotta get…
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NYPD Officer Arrested After Hiring a Hitman to Kill Her Husband and Her Boyfriend's Daughter
New York police officer Valerie Cincinelli, mother of two, paid $7,000 as part of a complicated scheme to have her husband Isaiah Carvalho Jr. killed. According to the New York Times, Cincinelli, a 12-year NYPD veteran who once worked in a Queens domestic violence unit, also planned to have the daughter of her boyfriend killed,…
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Citing Fears of Worsening Racial Bias, San Francisco Votes to Ban Police Use of Facial Recognition Technology
No other city in the U.S. is as closely associated with technological advancements than San Francisco, which, for the most part, has embraced both tech companies and their services in civic life. But on Tuesday, San Francisco passed an ordinance that would ban the use of one very specific technology—facial recognition—by local police departments, making…
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Missouri Governor After Seeing Alabama’s Abortion Ban: Hold My Moonshine
The clearly not-so-great-state of Alabama just enacted the most extreme abortion ban since abortion was made legal by Roe v. Wade some 46 years ago. Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, signed the bill that could punish doctors who perform abortions with life in prison. Twenty-five white men (and Kay—surely among the 53 percent of white…
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An Arizona Prisoner Was Sent a Book Critical of the Criminal Justice System. Now, the State Has Banned It
In one of the most memorable passages of his seminal autobiography, civil rights leader Malcolm X made explicit the impact his in-prison education had on him. Arrested on charges of larceny and sentenced to 10 years in prison, Malcolm read voraciously. “I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of…
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![’Bama Senators Vote to Ban Virtually All Abortions in the State in Hopes of Setting Up a Supreme Court Fight Over Roe v. Wade [Updated]](https://www.theroot.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/mpiuyd4lchxokt3h9lws-300x210.jpg)
’Bama Senators Vote to Ban Virtually All Abortions in the State in Hopes of Setting Up a Supreme Court Fight Over Roe v. Wade [Updated]
Updated: Tuesday, May 14, 2019, 11:55 p.m. EDT: The GOP-majority Alabama Senate Tuesday passed the nation’s most restrictive abortion ban, outlawing the procedure in all cases, except in instances of a “serious” risk to the mother, the Associated Press reports. An amendment to add an exception to allow abortions in cases of rape or incest…
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Man Pleads Guilty to Throwing 5-Year-Old Boy Over Railing at Mall of America; Faces 19 Years
Emmanuel D. Aranda, the 24-year-old Minneapolis man charged with hurling a little boy over a third-floor railing at the Mall of America in a random attack last month, pleaded guilty to the crime Tuesday. Aranda is to be sentenced in June to 19 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of attempted first-degree…
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Officials Confirm Fire That 'Significantly Damaged' New Haven Mosque Was Intentionally Set
As Muslims throughout the world observe Ramadan—a time during which compassion, self-reflection and spiritual renewal are fostered—intolerance for their faith continues to manifest in unfortunate ways. The Hartford Courant reports that a federal criminal investigation is underway after a two-alarm fire significantly damaged a mosque in New Haven, Conn., on Sunday. “This was intentionally set,”…
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Unarmed Black Woman Yells ‘I’m Pregnant!’ Before Being Shot, Killed by Police
A police officer in Baytown, Texas, fatally shot and killed a black woman while attempting to arrest her at her apartment complex on Monday night. KHOU 11 reports that the shooting occurred after an officer identified a woman with whom he had prior encounters while patrolling her apartment complex. Believing she had outstanding warrants, he…
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Top Civil Rights Groups Will Help Crystal Mason Appeal Her 5-Year Sentence for Trying to Vote
It was a case so unfair, it quickly became a go-to talking point to illuminate the criminal justice system’s deep racial inequities: Crystal Mason, a 44-year-old Texas woman was sentenced to five years in jail for unknowingly casting an illegal ballot. Last Friday, two major civil rights groups, the American Civil Liberties Union and the…