Category: Criminal Justice Reform

Before 2017, a person in Louisiana could be sentenced to life in prison after receiving a fourth nonviolent conviction under the state’s habitual offender law. — BILL LOHMANN, THE NEW YORK TIMES A Louisiana man whose life sentence for attempting to steal hedge clippers in 1997 drew a national spotlight to the state’s habitual offender […]

— Tessa Duvall, Courier Journal LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Former Police Chief Steve Conrad was told Breonna Taylor was armed with a rifle and had fired at officers before they shot her dead in her apartment, according to an investigative interview obtained by The Courier Journal. None of that, he later discovered, was true. Conrad was interviewed […]

The Obsidian Collection is collaborating with Google Arts & Culture to ensure the journalism is preserved for many years to come — Arelis R. Hernández, Mark Berman & Mary Beth Gahan, The Washington Post WOLFE CITY, Texas — Few people knew his real name, but in the short six months that Shaun Lucas patrolled this tiny Texas community, […]

Prince George’s County, Maryland, officials settle 9 months after the death of William Green, who was shot 6 times while sitting in a patrol car. — Stefan Sykes, NBC News The family of a man shot to death by a Maryland police officer has reached a $20 million-dollar settlement with Prince George’s County, announced county […]

A report shows Black neighborhoods have been more heavily patrolled, but police officials have said that enforcement is mostly driven by 911 and 311 calls, not racial bias. — Alan Feuer, The New York Times When Bill de Blasio first ran for mayor in 2013, he promised that under his administration New York City police […]

The only person who said he heard police announce themselves during the fatal raid said something very different two months earlier. — Pilar Melendez, Daily Beast This week, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron made the bombshell announcement that the cops who fatally shot Breonna Taylor would not be charged with killing her, calling their use of force […]

— Crystal Hill, Yahoo News Days after learning that no Louisville police officers would be charged with homicide in the death of Breonna Taylor, lawyers for the woman’s family called on Kentucky’s attorney general to release the transcripts of the grand jury proceedings. “Breonna Taylor’s entire family is heartbroken, devastated, outraged and confused as to […]

For many, the Grand Jury announcement in Breonna Taylor’s case was more of the same, underscoring the need for systemic change. — Alisha Haridasani Gupta, The New York Times “The system that killed Breonna Taylor is not set up to provide justice or reparations for the killing of Breonna Taylor.” — Andrea Ritchie, author of […]

— Phillip Jackson, The Baltimore Sun The city of Baltimore committed an “illegal act” when it took $31,500 from a woman who settled a lawsuit and then spoke out publicly about allegations that police beat her, a federal judge ruled Monday while ordering the city to pay the money back, plus interest. Ashley Overbey Underwood […]

— SCOTT DAUGHERTY, The Virginian-Pilot Originally sentenced to more than six life terms in prison for his part in an armed robbery, Travion Blount was never supposed to be released. But there he was Thursday, walking out of Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. “Hey, ma,” Blount, 29, said before embracing his mother for the first […]