Here is something that astounds me: in video after video, we see a white, male cop unnecessarily brutalizing a black female who had failed to immediately defer to the cop’s authority, and law enforcement quickly declares that race was not a factor in the violence. By now, many of us have seen one of… Read More
With all our talk about police violence aimed at poor and minority communities, we have yet to talk about the group most likely to be killed by law enforcement: Native Americans. Native American men are incarcerated at four times the rate of white men and Native American women are sent to prison at six times the… Read More
There are rules of fair play in criminal cases, and one of the most important ones is: the prosecutors must give the defense any evidence that is favorable to the person accused and material to the question of whether or not that person is guilty. In other words, it is cheating for prosecutors to hide… Read More
After all of the interest in our recent post Too Many Women in Prison, let’s take a look at where the female over-incarceration problem often starts—girls in the justice system. While youth arrests are generally declining, the rates for… Read More
Ohio Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Paul E. Pfeifer: ”I never felt so much like a hooker down by the bus station in any race I’ve ever been in as I did in a judicial race. Everyone interested in contributing has very specific interests. They mean to be buying a vote. . . .” … Read More
I know we do a wrongful conviction roundup every quarter, but the injustice some people have to endure never fails to shock. This quarter’s wrongful convictions are especially upsetting. The Exoneration of Bobby Johnson Let’s begin with Bobby Johnson’s heartbreaking wrongful conviction. Bobby was 16 years old in 2006 when he was jailed for the… Read More
