Everyone on death row gets a lawyer. Not everyone gets a Kim Kardashian. No one seems to know why some death penalty cases attract celebrity advocates and become national stories, symbolizing the flaws in our system of capital punishment. But it is clear that all the attention celebrities draw probably does more good than harm to those who believe they were wrongfully convicted or sentenced. Take the case of Rodney Reed, now pending in Texas. The death row prisoner has Kardashian, Oprah, Beyoncé and Dr. Phil on his side as he waits for a hearing that could determine his fate. In collaboration with The Guardian, TMP’s Keri Blakinger and Maurice Chammah have our story. The Marshall Project

“Thank you for not giving up on me.” Thomas Koskovich spends part of his two consecutive life sentences as a teachers’ aide in New Jersey State Prison. In the latest installment of our “Life Inside” series, he recounts one episode with a “hard case,” a young student who at first was more interested in drawing attention to himself than in learning what the educators were teaching. Koskovich recalled that he had once been a “hard case,” too, and used that experience to turn his student on to the power of knowledge. “I had actually helped this guy!” Koskovich writes. The Marshall Project

ICE nominee says he won’t end all detainer deals with local law enforcement. Ed Gonzalez terminated one such arrangement with federal immigration agents when he was sheriff of Harris County, Texas, in 2017. But he told federal lawmakers during his confirmation hearing Thursday that he is against ending the program entirely. Los Angeles Times “Is it appropriate for you to lead an agency you’ve been so critical of?” Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio asked Gonzalez. The Washington Post ICE is an agency in turmoil. NPR Related: Neither Gonzalez nor Chris Magnus at Customs and Border Protection have been confirmed, six months into the Biden administration. The New York Times

Thurgood, 30 years on. Justice Thurgood Marshall announced his retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court 30 years ago. He was a rare figure in U.S. history, known as much for his work before he became a justice as for his record on the bench. But remembering Marshall “only for his votes, or even for the remarkable success of his work as the leading civil rights litigator in the nation’s history, deprives us of the opportunity to admire the fullness of his humanity,” writes Stephen L. Carter, the Yale law professor who once clerked for the late justice. The New York Times TMP Context: The awakening of Thurgood Marshall. The Marshall Project

Rejecting an insanity defense, a Maryland jury on Thursday found gunman Jarrod Ramos criminally responsible for the 2018 mass shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper. Annapolis Capital Gazette Ramos will now serve his still undetermined sentence in prison, and not in a mental hospital. The Associated Press

A 22-year-old lawsuit brought against gunmakers by officials in Gary, Indiana, will finally move into its discovery phase. A local judge will decide how many documents lawyers for industry defendants like Smith & Wesson will need to provide to the plaintiffs. The Trace

“How is this the United States?” On the plight of people locked up in jail in Marion County, Alabama, because they are too poor to pay their debts. AL.com TMP Context: Debtors prisons are not a thing of the past. The Marshall Project

Illinois just became the first state to ban police from using deceptive interrogation techniques when questioning children. Chicago Tribune TMP Context: Your Zoom interrogation is about to begin. The Marshall Project

Prosecutors from Tarrant County, Texas, argued in court this week that a judge’s antisemitism made no difference in the conviction of a Jewish defendant in a capital case. Randy Halprin’s execution was stayed in 2019 to investigate claims his trial judge, Vickers Cunningham, showed illegal judicial bias. Dallas Morning News

The police crackdown on Lafayette Square protesters last year remains a scandal. And the Interior Department’s whitewashing of the abuse makes the problem worse. The Washington Post

Eric Adams’ New York coup. “If calls to defund the cops are dangerously doctrinaire, what about calls to reinvest money and resources in violent right-wingers who only answer to democratically elected authorities when they want to?” New York Magazine

The lessons of the Jabari Williams case. Journalists need to cover the improvements in the criminal justice system in New Orleans, while also candidly reminding their audiences of past misconduct. The Open File

How Los Angeles County (again) screwed up its juvenile justice system. Bureaucratic obstacles, poor management and bad luck all conspired to doom a well-intentioned reform effort. Los Angeles Times

The FBI went too far with a “fishing expedition” in 2016. Agents targeted the Concerned Women for America organization for no evident reason. The investigation went nowhere. It should never have begun. Orange County Register

We’re great at lying. We’re awful about detecting lies. Scientists keep trying to find ways to accurately detect when someone isn’t telling the truth. The stakes are enormous for the world of criminal justice. Discover Magazine

A quarter of a billion dollars to ease reentry. The Ford Foundation and its partners announced a $250 million charitable commitment to help incarcerated people find jobs once they are released from prison. The Washington Post

Understanding crime trends is really hard, even when all the data is in. That explains why so many people are failing to accurately interpret the current violent crime figures. CNN

Let’s not waste the opportunity. The pressure caused by the spread of COVID-19 forced dramatic and immediate changes to criminal justice across the country. As the virus recedes in some places, reforms can and should continue. The Rand Corporation

The link between rising gun sales and domestic violence. Women’s shelters are already overwhelmed because of the pandemic. Experts worry things are going to get worse. PBS