The Defenders Online | A Civil Rights Blog » Criminal Justice

On Trial: Racial Bias in Death Penalty Cases in North Carolina

The Editors — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:06:14 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
A judicial hearing now underway in North Carolina has brought into the open the debate over whether the state’s prosecutors have or have not jettisoned the past common practice of deliberately dismissing black potential jurors in capital murder cases.

Embattled Connecticut Police Chief Resigns; Department Faces Prospect of More Officers’ Arrests

The Editors — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:59:17 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
The racial crisis which last week led to the arrests of four police officers of the small Connecticut town of East Haven deepened Monday as its embattled police chief resigned from office amid word that he could soon be arrested, too, along with more of the department’s officers.

N.Y.P.D. Officer Pleads Guilty to Civil Rights Violation

The Editors — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:52:57 +0000

By The Editors
The bullying swagger of Michael Daragjati, once apparently his perverse badge of honor, was nowhere in evidence earlier this week as he sat in Brooklyn’s federal district court.

F.B.I. Arrests Four Connecticut Police Officers In Racial Harassment of Latino Residents

The Editors — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:05:34 +0000

By The Editors
The contentious relationship between the police force of a small Connecticut town and its Latino community reached a new stage Tuesday when the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested four of the town’s police officers and charged them with racially profiling and harassing Latinos.

Thinking Outside the Cell Series: Hiding

The Editors — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:45:30 +0000

By Tanea Lunsford
Having an incarcerated parent often means being part of a family where hiding the truth is a way of life.

Maryland’s Highest Court Unanimously Upholds Right to Counsel at Initial Bail Hearings

The Editors — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:06:23 +0000

On January 4, 2012, Maryland’s highest court issued a unanimous ruling (PDF) in Richmond v. District Court of Maryland that guarantees the right of indigent defendants to have a lawyer present at their initial bail hearing.

The Question New York City Black And Latino Youth Continually Ask

The Editors — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:09:26 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
Nicholas K. Peart, a 20-something Harlem resident and college student, in an op-ed column in the New York Times last month that describes in a calm, almost clinical way how police racial profiling works at street level to deprive innocent people of their rights and of any reason to trust the police.

Record Decline in Death Sentences

The Editors — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 21:20:03 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
The death penalty, once an inviolate feature of America’s legal and political landscape, has lost significant support among the American public, according to a report released this week.

Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Journey Through the American Death Penalty System

The Editors — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 19:25:46 +0000

In an article for the Open Society blog, Christina Swarns, Director of the Criminal Justice Practice of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, discusses how the controversial case had "continued to follow the arc of [the debate about] the American death penalty."

Christina Swarns Discusses the Mumia Abu-Jamal Case

The Editors — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:13:47 +0000

The defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose controversial 1982 conviction and death sentence for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer galvanized a worldwide protest, recorded a critical landmark this week.

Life Sentence for Mumia Abu-Jamal

The Editors — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:25:22 +0000

Today, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office announced that it will not seek another death sentence for Mumia Abu-Jamal. Pennsylvania law now requires Mr. Abu-Jamal to be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for his controversial 1982 murder conviction in the shooting death of a police officer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Supreme Court Will Decide Fairness of Cocaine Sentencing Rules

The Editors — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:50:56 +0000

By The Editors
Once the sentencing rules for an offense are changed to lesser terms, is it fair to still subject some individuals to the old, harsher rules?

Bearing Witness

The Editors — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 19:33:15 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

That idea, first conceived and expressed by the nineteenth-century abolitionist Theodore Parker and then re-cast and made famous in our time by Martin Luther King, Jr., has always been the guiding force of black Americans’ freedom struggle.

Broad-Based Coalition Urges Harris County District Attorney to Set a Proper Remedy in the Duane Buck Case

The Editors — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 19:21:47 +0000

By The Editors
A broad-based group of civil rights groups, faith-based leaders and individuals prominent in other fields, including law enforcement are urging the Harris County (Texas) District Attorney to delay setting an execution date for Duane Buck, who now sits on that state’s death row.

The Think Outside the Cell Series: Our Favorite Son

The Editors — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:22:19 +0000

By Lowanna M. Owens
We were a “Bill Cosby” family, educated blacks with class and standards. We were middle class, lived in the suburbs outside of Los Angeles, and had a loving extended family. All was good. Or so I thought.

Trying Juveniles as Adults Doesn’t Reduce Juvenile Crime

The Editors — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:44:19 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
Only eight states publicly report the race and ethnicity of juveniles transferred to adult courts for criminal prosecution, the Justice Department has found, and it’s no wonder that more states don’t. Those that do are sending disproportionate numbers of African-American or Hispanic teenagers to face the possibility of the most serious punishment that a juvenile offender can face—getting locked up in a state prison alongside hardened adult criminals.

“Fried Another Nigger”

The Editors — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:05:17 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
The words allegedly spoken by a New York City police officer accused of illegally arresting a black New York City resident – “fried another nigger,” – are shocking.

United States Supreme Court Rejects Appeal from Philadelphia DA’s Office Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Death Sentence is Unconstitutional

The Editors — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:52:00 +0000

(New York, NY) – Today the United States Supreme Court rejected a request from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office to overturn the most recent federal appeals court decision declaring Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death sentence unconstitutional. The Court’s decision brings to an end nearly thirty years of litigation over the fairness of the sentencing hearing that resulted [...]

Georgia Remains Center of Death Penalty Controversy

The Editors — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:21:24 +0000

By George E. Curry
Ray Charles sings about Georgia being on his mind. But, as Troy Davis is to be laid to rest Saturday in Savannah, Georgia is also on the minds of distraught death penalty opponents who saw him executed on the basis of questionable evidence and despite an array of witnesses who had recanted their original testimony.

Darn Right It’s “Too Incendiary”

The Editors — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 01:30:12 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
The New York Times reported yesterday that Mark Melvin, a prison inmate in Alabama, is suing the state department of corrections because they won’t let him have a book his attorney sent him. His lawsuit charges that prison officials characterized the book as “a security threat,” as “too incendiary” and “too provocative.”

Supreme Court Stays Execution of Duane Buck

The Editors — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 22:30:36 +0000

By The Editors The U.S. Supreme Court late Thursday stayed the scheduled execution by the state of Texas of Duane Buck in order to review the appeal of Buck’s attorneys that his sentencing was tainted by racial bias. Buck, 48, who is African American, was convicted of the 1995 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Debra Gardner, [...]

Guilty Plea in Attempted Bombing of Spokane Martin Luther King Day Parade

The Editors — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 03:35:17 +0000

By The Editors
A Washington state men, with an extensive links to a neo-Nazi website and white-supremacist organizations, has pleaded guilty to attempting to bomb the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Parade last January 17.

New Jersey Supreme Court Orders Sweeping Changes to Use of Eyewitness Identification

The Editors — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 20:16:32 +0000

By The Editors
The New Jersey Supreme Court this week ordered sweeping changes in the way eyewitness identification is used and evaluated in the state’s criminal courts.

The Think Outside the Cell Series: My Brother’s First Kiss

The Editors — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 20:48:37 +0000

By Marlon Peterson
My brother was definitely not my keeper... He was never the big brother that would give his little brother the tough love most big brothers took pride in. Hell, there was no love.

America’s Mass Incarceration Policy: Bad for Children

The Editors — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 21:11:29 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
America’s policy of mass incarceration – under which the number of black state and federal inmates especially has exploded over the past three decades – has had a starkly negative impact on the lives of millions of black children, and is contributing to “an intergenerational transfer of racial inequality” on a massive scale, two scholars assert in the current issue of an academic journal.