Blacks and criminal justice reform

Today, Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Joyce Beatty (OH-03) and members of the Congressional Black Caucus issued the following statement on the President’s Executive Action on Marijuana Reform:

BOSTON (AP) — During the 22 years he spent in prison after being convicted of killing a Boston police detective, Sean Ellis believed there was something suspicious about the officers who led the murder investigation. He just couldn’t prove it. It would take years of digging and scores of public information requests from his attorneys […]

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana judge on Monday ordered the release of an inmate whose attorneys have accused prosecutors of withholding “staggering” evidence of the man’s innocence in a pizza deliveryman’s killing two decades ago. A plea deal with Caddo Parish prosecutors will allow Corey Williams to be freed as soon as Tuesday […]

By now you may know the story – Kalief Browder has become the primary example of the justice system’s punitive and unjust treatment of Blacks, especially Black males. At 16, Bronx native Browder was arrested on suspicion of stealing a backpack. He spent the next three years of his life in New York’s notorious Riker’s […]

  NEW YORK (AP) — Rap superstar Jay Z is helping shine a light on prison reform by co-producing an upcoming TV documentary about a young man who spent three years behind bars without trial for allegedly stealing a backpack. The rapper teamed up with Harvey Weinstein to produce the six-part “TIME: The Kalief Browder […]

Davontae Sanford, 23, who served close to nine years in prison for a quadruple homicide, left prison in Ionia, Michigan, Wednesday.

Duane Buck was tried and convicted of murder on charges that he shot and killed his ex-girlfriend and another man in 1995.

Palm Beach Gardens Police Officer Nouman Raja, who killed Corey Jones as he waited for roadside assistance, was still on probation and therefore unqualified for undercover surveillance work.

In a page ripped from a Hollywood film about a broken criminal justice system, a judge in Marion, Alabama is under fire for ordering poor offenders to donate blood or go to jail.

EL RENO, Okla. (AP) — Federal inmates at an Oklahoma prison said Wednesday they are hoping a documentary featuring President Barack Obama’s July visit to the facility and in-depth interviews with six of the prisoners will influence policymakers to re-examine harsh sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. About 50 inmates gathered inside the chapel of the […]