From Southern Studies: n May, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell announced a historic win for voting rights: the automatic restoration of those rights for former nonviolent felony offenders on an individualized basis. It was a few steps short of what voting rights advocates have been calling for, which is full automatic…
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Despite the heat, a teen at Trayvon Martin rally asks if he looks dangerous. #wbz pic.twitter.com/a7mf6Lcv2N — Mark Katic (@MarkKWBZ) July 20, 2013 From ThinkProgress: On Saturday, 100 cities held rallies organized by the National Action Network for Trayvon Martin, where large crowds demanded a federal civil rights investigation into…
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Curtis Flowers at his capital trial in 2004. The Mississippi Supreme Court reversed his first conviction after prosecutors used all of their peremptory strikes against blacks in the jury pool. From NYT: [T]he practice of excluding blacks and other minorities from Southern juries remains widespread and, according to defense lawyers…
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From Miami New Times: Tremaine McMillian, the 14-year-old boy who was forced the ground and head-locked by Miami-Dade police because, among other things, they claimed he was giving them “dehumanizing stares,” had his day in court this morning. McMillian was also facing two unrelated charges, but all charges have been…
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From LAT: California officials Monday said 30,000 inmates refused meals at the start of what could be the largest prison protest in state history. Inmates in two-thirds of the state’s 33 prisons, and at all four out-of-state private prisons, refused both breakfast and lunch on Monday, said corrections spokeswoman Terry…
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Herman Wallace may be the longest-serving prisoner in solitary confinement in the United States—he’s spent more than 40 years in a 6-by-9-foot cell in Louisiana. Imprisoned in 1967 for a robbery he admits, he was subsequently sentenced to life for a killing he vehemently denies. Herman’s House is a moving…
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Female inmates sterilized in California prisons without approval: Doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sterilized nearly 150 female inmates from 2006 to 2010 without required state approvals, the Center for Investigative Reporting has found. At least 148 women received tubal ligations in violation of prison…
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† Criminal InJustice is a weekly series devoted to taking action against inequities in the U.S. criminal justice system. Nancy A. Heitzeg, Professor of Sociology and Race/Ethnicity, is the Editor of CI. Kay Whitlock, co-author of Queer (In)Justice, is contributing editor of CI. Criminal Injustice is published every Wednesday at…
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