Two Travesties of Justice and Not a Single Apology in Sight
*Originally published in the Huffington Post on 11/20/2017. Anyone interested in criminal justice knows that our system is broken. Two recent cases out of Louisiana highlight just how broken our system really is. The first case is about a now-senior citizen named Wilbert Jones, who was released last week from prison after serving 45 years […]
Do Black People Even Have Souls?
*Originally published in the Huffington Post 09/21/2017. Keith Tharpe is scheduled to be executed on September 26th in Georgia. His conviction and death sentence are marred by racism. During jury selection, a now-deceased juror named Barney Gattie swore he had “no preconceived notions about the case.” Unfortunately, Mr. Gattie had very definite notions about black […]
“Use By” Date Expired for Ledell Lee
*Originally published in the Huffington Post 04/21/2017. Ledell Lee was executed last night in Arkansas. Earlier this month, Arkansas promised to execute eight men in eleven days. These eight men were chosen to die, not because their cases were so uniquely cruel and heinous, or because they’d been on death row for too long, or […]
No Justice For Man Boiled To Death In Florida Prison
*Originally published in the Huffington Post 03/28/2017. What is a fair punishment for boiling a man to death? Apparently, nothing. At least not in Florida. In 2012, Darren Rainey was serving a two year sentence at Dade Prison for a non-violent drug offense. Mr. Rainey, who battled mental illness, reportedly had defecated in his cell […]
Thinking Past Trump: Top 10 State Criminal Justice Reforms for 2017
*Originally published in the Huffington Post 12/19/2016. Criminal justice reform prospects for 2017 are bleak, at least at the federal level. Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions helped scuttle the most promising criminal justice reform package seen in years, and seems likely to continue the vintage “tough on crime” policies that created today’s mass incarceration crisis […]
Nothing to Smile About: Bite Mark Evidence Blasted Again
*Originally published in The Wrongful Convictions Blog 09/22/2016. Your smile could cost you your freedom. Just ask Crystal Weimer from Pennsylvania, or William Richards from California. Weimer and Richards don’t know each other, but their fates were eerily and tragically similar. Both were tried and convicted of murder in unrelated cases. Both of their convictions […]
Louisiana, It’s Time to Get Your Priorities Straight
*Originally published in the Huffington Post 07/07/2016. The police shooting in Louisiana of Alton Sterling, a black man and father of five, was caught on video. As one commentator eloquently described it: “We’ve seen a lot of police brutality these past few years, but seeing the police first tackle and manhandle Alton Sterling, mount […]
On Death Row for a Murder that Wasn’t?
*Originally published in The Wrongful Convictions Blog 06/06/2016. Rodricus Crawford sits on Louisiana’s death row, awaiting execution for the murder of his one-year-old son, Roderius. But although Roderius (affectionately called “BoBo”) is dead, he likely was not murdered – not by his father. Or by anyone else. Dale Cox was the Lousiana prosecutor against Crawford, […]
Don’t Believe the Bite
Originally published in The Wrongful Convictions Blog 05/10/2016. Eddie Lee Howard, Jr. has been on Mississippi’s death row for nearly two decades, convicted of the 1992 grisly murder of an 84-year-old woman named Georgia Kemp. Absent any real leads or suspects, the police focused in on Howard, who had spent years in and out prison […]
The Cost of Lying: For One Lab Scientist Who Fabricated Evidence, Just Two Years in Prison
*Originally published in the Huffington Post 04/19/2016. Plenty of people who commit non-violent drug crimes are sentenced to years, if not decades, in prison. Policymakers have argued that severe sentences are necessary to deter offenders from committing future crimes. But Annie Dookhan was recently paroled after serving just two years of a 3-5 year sentence. […]