Criminal Justice

Defiant Kentucky Clerk Taken Into Federal Custody

September 4, 2015 Tierney Sneed and Katherine Krueger, www.talkingpointsmemo.com Educate! Criminal Justice, Kentucky, Law

By Tierney Sneed and Katherine Krueger in Talking Points Memo - Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue gay marriage licenses, has been found in contempt of court and taken into federal custody. According to AP, U.S. District Judge David Bunning said Thursday that Davis would be held in jail until she complied with the previous court orders to begin granting the marriage licenses. “The court cannot condone the willful disobedience of its lawfully issued order,” Judge Bunning said, according to the New York Times. “If you give people the opportunity to choose which orders they follow, that’s what potentially causes problems.” She was not in handcuffs when she was led into custody, AP reported, and said "thank you" before a U.S. marshal escorted her out of the court room.

Baltimore Protester Arrested At Freddie Gray Court Hearing

September 2, 2015 Nicky Woolf, www.theguardian.com Resist! Courts, Criminal Justice, Freddie Gray, killed by police, Police violence, Racism

By Nicky Woolf for the Guardian - At the first pre-trial hearing in the Freddie Gray murder trial. Judge Barry Glenn Williams denied a motion to dismiss the charges and ruled that State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby does not have to recuse herself from the case. These were two of the three demands of the protesters seeking justice for Freddie Gray. The third demand is the critical issue of whether there will be a change of venue. That issue will not be heard until September 10th. There were dozens of protesters outside the courthouse who later marched through the streets of downtown Baltimore. The protests briefly shut down intersections and all was going smoothly until the police arrested one person who was trying to lead the group back to the courthouse.

82 Orgs Ask DOJ To Address Illegality Of ‘Muslim-Free Zone’

September 2, 2015 CAIR, www.cair.com Resist! Criminal Justice, discrimination, Faith, Human Rights, Islamophobia, Law

By CAIR - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, announced today that a coalition of 82 civil liberties, human rights, immigrant rights, faith, and cultural organizations (see list of signatories below) sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking her to investigate the growing phenomena of so-called “Muslim-free zone” businesses nationwide. The coalition, which includes prominent national organizations such as the ACLU, NAACP and the YWCA USA, requested that the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division’s Housing and Civil Enforcement Section conduct a full federal investigation into all businesses that have declared themselves as “Muslim-Free Zones” and “bring civil enforcement proceedings against business owners who have violated the law.”

B’more: Cellphone Tracking Used To Violate Rights Of 2K Defendants

September 1, 2015 Josie Duffy, www.dailykos.com Educate! Baltimore, Criminal Justice, Human Rights, Police, Surveillance

By Josie Duffy in Daily Kos - A recent investigation by USA Today showed that police in Baltimore have been tracking cellphones during investigations but have failed to disclose the tracking to defendants and their attorneys. As a result, public defenders in Baltimore are expected to request that "a large number" of criminal convictions be thrown out. Baltimore police have used cellphone trackers, commonly known as stingrays, to investigate crimes as minor as harassing phone calls, then concealed the surveillance from suspects and their lawyers. Maryland law generally requires that electronic surveillance be disclosed in court. […] Stingrays are suitcase-sized devices that allow the police to pinpoint a cellphone’s location to within a few yards by posing as a cell tower. In the process, they also can intercept information from the phones of nearly everyone else who happens to be nearby.

Support Rev. Pinkney, Send Letters To Court Of Appeals NOW!

August 28, 2015 Black Autonomy Network Community Organization, www.bhbanco.org Petitions and Online Actions Criminal Justice, Law, Michigan

By Black Autonomy Network Community Organization - On August 4th, a 3-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals in District III (Grand Rapids) issued a 2-1 decision denying Rev. Edward Pinkney bond pending appeal. This outrageous decision by two of the judges keeps Rev. Pinkney locked behind bars for even longer than the 8 months he's already served. The entire appeals process could take many months more. The ACLU of Michigan wrote in a brief supporting bond pending appeal that the trial court conviction against Rev. Pinkney is “almost certain” to be reversed on appeal. That means he's “paying a debt to society” he doesn't owe. We know that the Berrien County trial court is a corrupt and racist institution.

Whistleblowers Band Together To Sue FBI, NSA And DOJ

August 26, 2015 Tim Cushing, www.techdirt.com Resist! Criminal Justice, FBI, NSA

By Tim Cushing in Tech Dirt - This should be fun. A bunch of whistleblowers that were hounded, surveilled and prosecuted/persecuted by the US government are banding together to sue all the big names in domestic surveillance. Thomas Drake, Diane Roark, Ed Loomis, J. Kirk Wiebe and William Binney have filed a civil rights lawsuit against the NSA, FBI, DOJ, Michael Hayden, Keith Alexander, Chris Inglis, Robert Mueller and a handful of others. They will be represented by Larry Klayman, who has some experience suing intelligence agencies. The claims arise from the government's treatment of these whistleblowers after they started making noise about the NSA's surveillance programs.

New Ferguson Judge Finally Doing Something About Abusive Court

August 25, 2015 Ryan J. Reilly, www.huffingtonpost.com Create! Criminal Justice, Ferguson, Law, police brutality

By Ryan J. Reilly in The Huffington Post - Ferguson Municipal Court Judge Donald McCullin issued an order on Monday that attempts to address some of the damage caused by St. Louis County's practice of issuing arrest warrants and harsh penalties for minor violations, a revenue-driven approach the Department of Justice criticized in a March report. The judge's order withdrew all arrest warrants issued before this year, and reinstated drivers licenses that were suspended only because of a missed court date or failure to pay a fine. The move comes a year after after the death of Michael Brown helped call attention to theabusive practices of municipal courts around St. Louis County that undermined relationships between police and communities in the region.

Protests Erupt After Mistrial In NC Police Prosecution

August 24, 2015 Michael Gordon, Cleve R. Wootson JR. and Mark Washburn in Charlotte Observer, www.charlotteobserver.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Law, police brutality, Protests

By Michael Gordon, Cleve R. Wootson JR. and Mark Washburn in Charlotte Observer - Two years after a deadly struggle in the dark of night and three weeks into an emotionally charged trial, jurors said Friday they were hopelessly deadlocked, an outcome that satisfied neither side in the polarizing case of a white police officer charged with killing an unarmed black man. The jury was unable to unanimously decide whether Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Officer Randall “Wes” Kerrick used excessive force in firing 12 shots at Jonathan Ferrell, who charged at him moments after police encountered him walking near a neighborhood pool. Eight jurors were for acquittal and four for conviction, according to someone close to the proceedings. Within moments of the mistrial, about a dozen protesters, whites and blacks, lay down with hands behind their backs and blocked traffic outside the courthouse on Fourth Street, chanting “No justice, no peace.”

Court: OWS Pepper Spray Victim Can Sue For Excessive Force

August 22, 2015 Emma Whitford, www.gothamist.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Law, Occupy Wall Street

By Emma Whitford in Gothamist - Around 5:00 a.m. on November 15, 2011, a few hours after NYPD officers raided the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park, two police officers arrested and pepper-sprayed 23-year-old protester Imani Brown outside of a downtown Starbucks where she was hoping to use the bathroom. Brown filed a civil suit this June, accusing officers Justin Naimoli and Theodore Plevritis of falsely arresting her, and using "excessive force." The suit was dismissed in district court, but yesterday the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan reversed the excessive force claim. The court upheld the district court's dismissal of the false arrest claim. Brown's suit recounts how she "approached the Starbucks and knocked on the door and, using an elevated voice, gestured to herself and to an employee inside."

One Year Later, Everyone Arrested In Ferguson Being Charged

August 20, 2015 Mariah Stewart and Ryan Reilly, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Criminal Justice, Ferguson, Law, police brutality

By Mariah Stewart and Ryan Reilly in The Huffington Post - A year ago, after 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, police responded to even peaceful daytime protests in the St. Louis suburb by deploying attack dogs and tactical vehicles, pointing sniper rifles at peaceful protesters, arresting people for simply standing still on public sidewalks, flooding demonstrators with tear gas -- often without warning -- and shooting them with bean bags, wooden pellets and balls filled with pepper spray. A year later, St. Louis County authorities have decided they're not done with protesters quite yet. Lawyers representing the interests of those arrested in Ferguson last August say St. Louis County authorities have sent out "hundreds" of summonses to individuals swept up by police a year ago.

Big Increase In The Number Of Police Charged With Murder

August 20, 2015 Conor Freidersdorf , www.theatlantic.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Law, police brutality

By Conor Freidersdorf in The Atlantic - Observers have noted the fact that American police officers kill orders of magnitude more people than their counterparts in other western democracies. Now, the number of U.S. cops arrested for killings in the last five months exceeds the total number of people shot and killed by cops in England going back five years. This is particularly extraordinary given how reluctant many U.S. prosecutors are to file charges against police, and how much deference police reports are given in the absence of video or forensic evidence, like a bullet in the back, that blatantly contradicts their story. Are U.S. police now being charged at a higher rate than before? Maybe. Over a seven-year period ending in 2011, “41 officers in the U.S. were charged with either murder or manslaughter in connection with on-duty shootings,” The Wall Street Journal reported in 2014.

Man Charged With Felonies For Educating Jurors

August 7, 2015 David Edwards, www.fark.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Education

By David Edwards in Raw Story. Denver, CO - A Denver man has been charged with multiple felonies after he was caught distributing fliers to educate potential jurors about the practice of “jury nullification.” The Denver Post reported that 56-year-old Mark Iannicelli set up a small booth with a sign reading “Juror Info” outside the Lindsay-Flanigan Courthouse in Denver last week. The Denver District Attorney’s Office charged Iannicelli with seven counts of jury tampering after members of the jury pool were found to be in possession of fliers describing jury nullification. Jury nullification allows juries to acquit a defendant who they may believe is guilty if they also believe that the law is unjust. The practice has been used by juries in the United States since the 1800s to nullify anti-free speech laws and laws punishing northerners for helping runaway slaves.

Court Of Appeals Keeps Eric Garner Grand Jury Secret

August 3, 2015 Edward McAllister, www.reuters.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Eric Garner, Law, New York City (NYC), NYPD, police brutality

By Edward McAllister in Reuters - A New York state court on Wednesday declined to release details of a grand jury investigation that led to a police officer being cleared of wrongdoing in the death of Eric Garner after his chokehold arrest in Staten Island in July last year. Lawyers for civil rights groups and New York's public advocate office in June called for the release of the grand jury minutes including transcripts of testimony, exhibits and details of certain grand jurors to better understand the decision not to charge officer Daniel Pantaleo for Garner's death. Garner was black and Pantaleo is white, and the case caused widespread protests last year. The lawyers did not establish a compelling reason for disclosure of the minutes, the appellate division of New York State's Supreme Court said on Wednesday.

How The Criminalization Of The Queer Community Affects Us All

July 29, 2015 Andrew Extein, www.centerforsexualjustice.org Educate! Criminal Justice, Law, police brutality, Public Health, Queer, Sexual Violence

By Andrew Extein in Center For Sexual Justice - Sexual minorities, including queer and LGBT people, face many obstacles when navigating the criminal justice system. One especially difficult challenge is the treatment of sex within the legal system. Sex crimes and sex laws have had far-reaching repercussions, and queer people often find themselves targeted. There is a long, well-documented history of law enforcement entrapping queer people in prostitution busts and gay cruising stings. HIV status is increasingly criminalized nationwide. Trans* folk are harassed and singled out by law enforcement. Queer people are more likely to be targeted for civil commitment. Current sex laws ignore the needs and realities of queer youth, while seeking to criminalize their unique experiences. In jails and prisons, queer people, especially youth, are extremely vulnerable, often the focus of sexual and physical abuse by inmates, guards, and staff.

Mexico Finds 60 Secret Graves But Not The Missing 43 Students

July 28, 2015 Maria Verza, www.AP.org Educate! Ayotzinapa, Criminal Justice, Massacre, Mexico, Violence

By Maria Verza in Associated Press - The search for 43 missing college students in the southern state of Guerrero has turned up at least 60 clandestine graves and 129 bodies over the last 10 months, Mexico's attorney general's office says. None of the remains has been connected to the youths who disappeared after a clash with police in the city of Iguala on Sept. 26, and authorities do not believe any will be. Prosecutors say the students were turned over to a drug gang that killed them and incinerated their bodies in a case that has put attention on the huge number of people who have gone missing in Guerrero and other Mexican states where drug violence is widespread.

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