Eric Garner’s Death Is Still Haunting Bill de Blasio
Angel Chevrestt/Zuma Five years to the month that Eric Garner died as the result of a chokehold meted out by New York police officer Daniel Pantaleo, 10 Democratic candidates for president stood on the debate stage in Detroit and talked about criminal justice reform. And one of those candidates, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio,…
The Government Can Make You Legally “Dead,” Even When You’re Very Much Alive
Mother Jones illustration; Getty In 2010, Dana Gallop, a Boston gang member accused of murder, was waiting for his trial in a Rhode Island prison when a fellow inmate assaulted him with a razor. The attack left scars across Gallop’s face. He tried to sue, alleging that the inmate had warned a correctional officer about…
Getting Out of Jail After Dark Can Be Dangerous—and Sometimes Deadly
The last bus of the day pulls away from the parking lot outside the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California, at 8:43 p.m. Twenty minutes later, a young woman pulls up the hood of her dark jacket, pushes open the jail lobby’s heavy door, and steps out into the night, looking for a cigarette. Leah,…
The Trump Administration Announced It’s Bringing Back the Federal Death Penalty. Is It That Simple?
The execution chamber at the US Penitentiary in Terre HauteScott Olson/Getty After a 16-year hiatus, the Department of Justice announced on Thursday that it would be resuming the execution of inmates who are on federal death row. The executions will begin in December, when five inmates charged with grisly murders will be sent to the federal…
Inside the Courtroom Where Every Asylum Seeker Gets Rejected
Alex NabaumIn February 2018, in a small courtroom in rural Louisiana, an Eritrean man was fighting an impossible battle. The man, whom I’ll call Abraham—he asked that his real name not be used—was trying to convince immigration judge Agnelis Reese that he should receive asylum in the United States. He told Reese he had been imprisoned…
A Quarter of All State Supreme Courts Have Never Had a Justice of Color
Chris Ryan/Getty State courts hear 95 percent of cases filed in the United States, setting sweeping legal precedents that influence generations. “The [courts] touch virtually every aspect of our lives,” says Alicia Bannon, managing director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. But unfortunately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the people whose hands those…