criminal justice system

  • Innocent Blacks 7 Times More Likely to Be Convicted of Murder: Study 

    A new report from the National Registry of Exonerations has confirmed what we already knew (I know most of y’all ain’t surprised): Black people are more likely to be wrongfully convicted than their white counterparts, and they are also more likely to spend a longer time behind bars before they are exonerated. As the report,…

  • As A Dad, Queen Sugar Hit Me Right In The Feels

    I love Queen Sugar. Let’s start there. I’d take Queen Sugar on a $200 date, juju on the beat with it, and cook greens, beans, tomatoes and potatoes just so it would have something to take home in case it got hungry. For those who aren’t familiar, the Ava DuVernay-helmed show is the story of a Louisiana agricultural family—the Bordelons—dealing with…

  • Former Ark. Judge Accused of Giving Lenient Sentences in Exchange for Sexual Favors

    A former Arkansas judge has been arrested and accused of giving lenient sentences to male defendants in exchange for sexual favors he allegedly referred to as “community service,” the Washington Post reports. O. Joseph Boeckmann, 70, a former district court judge from Wayne, Ark., who was removed from his post earlier this year, was taken…

  • Mom of Kalief Browder Dies of a 'Broken Heart' 

    The mother of Kalief Browder, who killed himself after spending three traumatic years in New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex, has died of a “broken heart,” her lawyer told the New York Daily News Sunday. Venida Browder, 63, died Friday at St. Barnabas Hospital in New York City’s Bronx borough from complications of a heart…

  • Racial Bias Got Duane Buck the Death Sentence; the Supreme Court Can Fix It

    The perceived criminality and dangerousness of black men in the United States has a long and storied history. Black men are killed, become hashtags, and their names become etched into an American lexicon of atrocities against blackness. Terence Crutcher. Philando Castile. John Crawford III. Duane Buck could be next. “Nobody in this room is unaware…

  • Alaska Reporter Who Quit on the Air to Promote Weed Legalization Faces Decades in Prison

    The Alaska reporter who quit on the air with a resounding “[F—k] it” is now facing charges on 14 serious criminal offenses, which could land her in prison for 54 years, The Guardian reports. It all started Sept. 22, 2014, when Charlo Greene, then a reporter for Alaska station KTVA, ended a report on the Alaska…

  • President Obama Grants 111 Additional Commutations 

    On Tuesday, President Barack Obama granted commutations for an additional 111 federal inmates, bringing the total number of grants offered up to 325 in the month of August alone—the largest number of commutations ever granted by a president in a single month, the White House reports. Earlier this month, the president had granted more commutations in…

  • President Barack Obama Commutes Sentences for 214 Federal Inmates 

    President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of 214 federal prisoners Wednesday, granting the most commutations in a single day in more than a century, Time reports. According to the White House, Obama has now officially commuted the sentences of 562 men and women “incarcerated under outdated and unduly harsh sentencing laws, including 197 individuals who…