criminal justice
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Police Pocketing Innocent People’s Money: Report Shows Huge Racial Gap in South Carolina Civil Forfeitures
A new investigative project from the Greenville News and Anderson Independent Mail analyzing civil forfeitures in South Carolina reveals that police departments across the state have netted millions of dollars from state residents—the vast majority of them being black men. Despite accounting for just 13 percent of South Carolina’s population, black men composed 65 percent…
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New Orleans Rapper C-Murder Denied Retrial Despite Recantations by Two Witnesses
According to Associated Press, No Limit Record rapper C-Murder, born Corey Miller, has been denied a retrial in connection to his conviction for the murder of 16-year-old fan Steve Thomas at a nightclub. Miller, the younger sibling of rapper Master P, is currently serving a life sentence in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola after…
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Alabama Public Defender Accused of Creating ‘Law & Order: Special Racist Unit’
The man in charge of defending indigent citizens in the criminal justice system of one of America’s blackest cities has been accused of filling his office with racists who toss around the n-word like it’s 1799…or 1899…or, well, it’s Alabama, so 1999, too. David Luker was appointed as the Jefferson County Public Defender in 2016,…
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A Pregnant Woman Was Found Dead in a Mississippi Jail After Complaining About Stomach Pains. Her Family Has Yet to See Her
A pregnant mother of two was found dead in a Madison County, Mississippi jail cell sometime last week after complaining to jail officials of stomach pains, her family says. Now, the family of 37-year-old Lanekia Michelle Brown is trying to piece together what happened to her in a death they deem “very suspicious.” “We talked…
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First Step Is One of the Biggest Criminal Justice Reforms in Decades. But How Great Will Its Effect Be?
On Tuesday night, a Republican-dominated Senate passed First Step, paving the way for the criminal justice reform bill to clear the House and be signed into law by Donald Trump. The bipartisan bill, which was overwhelmingly passed in an 87-12 vote, is widely considered to the most substantial legislation affecting the federal prison system in…
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Tennessee Detective Caught Beating a Handcuffed Black Man Still Collecting Checks on Desk Duty
A white Hamilton County, Tennessee, detective caught on camera punching and kicking a black man in handcuffs is now on desk duty as police launch an investigation into the case. Video of the Dec. 3 incident captured by a neighbor shows Detective Blake Kilpatrick beating 24-year-old Charles Toney, punching him in the ribs and face…
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The One Place Colorblindness Will Benefit Black People: America’s Courtrooms. The Supreme Court Should Take Note
Black people usually recoil when we hear a white person say, “I don’t see color,” and with good reason. It usually denotes a form of racial denialism, at best, and a subtle, yet clear implication that there is something wrong with race, and specifically, something wrong with being black. But there is one venue that…