A move to require Ohio police to track race data in traffic stops. An Ohio lawmaker says she will introduce legislation requiring police agencies across the state to record race data when making traffic stops, following an investigation by The Marshall Project - Cleveland into how officers from the village of Bratenahl ticket mostly Black drivers from neighboring Cleveland. The Marshall Project TMP Context: Over 60% of drivers ticketed in Bratenahl in 2022 came from areas with higher poverty rates, lower household income, and larger non-White populations than most Ohio communities. The Marshall Project
“Crips don’t crochet.” But this one did. LaMarr W. Knox, imprisoned for decades in New York, won’t be eligible for parole until he is 82. At first, his prison experience mirrored his gang life on the outside. Then, about 10 years in, he found what he calls “a cathartic hobby,” the art of crocheting. Aside from allowing him to find some peace behind bars, he has gotten good enough at his hobby to gain some respect among his fellow prisoners, some of whom seek him out for his craft. Here’s the latest in our “Life Inside” series. The Marshall Project
Not just “a few bad apples” among New York corrections officers. Racial disparities in discipline in New York prisons have only gotten worse since a 2015 investigation revealed the scope of the problem. A new report by the state’s inspector general found, for example, that Black prisoners in 2020 were 38% more likely to be disciplined than their White counterparts. Hispanic prisoners were 29% more likely to be disciplined. The discrepancies were most pronounced when guards made subjective evaluations of prisoner conduct. The New York Times TMP Context: The growing racial disparity in prison time. The Marshall Project
An “embarrassing” breach of policy. Federal officials accidentally posted on a government website this week key information about 6,252 people who are seeking asylum and other immigrants who have sought protection in the U.S. for fear of torture and persecution in their home countries. Los Angeles Times More: An Afghan soldier escaped the Taliban and spent months trying to get to the U.S. border so he could request asylum. He was arrested in Texas and charged with illegal immigration. Texas Tribune Related: What’s the Biden administration going to do about Russian refugees showing up at the border seeking asylum? Slate
The age of the reformist prosecutor has not crested, says the nation’s most controversial reformist prosecutor. Larry Krasner, Philadelphia’s progressive district attorney, also argues there is an obvious reason for the rise in gun violence in his city and across the country. “You can almost mark the sharp increase in homicides nationwide with the exact same unique sharp increase in gun sales, which were a direct consequence of the pandemic and, according to some, a consequence of unrest just after the killing of George Floyd,” he says. The Intercept TMP Context: Krasner’s first term, under the lens. The Marshall Project
Corrections officers this week fatally shot two prisoners involved in a fight with another incarcerated man at the High Desert State Prison near Susanville, California. Los Angeles Times
An ordinance in St. Louis, Missouri, allows police to use what’s called a “Neighborhood Order of Protection” to banish people from the city for petty offenses. Other communities around the country have similar regulations, Few enforce them as aggressively. ProPublica
A 13-week murder trial in Pike County, Ohio, ended this week with guilty verdicts against George Wagner IV. He’s convicted on eight counts of aggravated murder for his role in killing eight members of another family in 2016. Cincinnati Enquirer
“Give me answers!” Conditions are so dangerous at the jail in Pima County, Arizona, that a coalition of former employees, reform advocates and the families of incarcerated people have joined together to call for its closure. Arizona Luminaria
Corrections officials in Idaho have canceled the Dec. 15 execution of Gerald Pizzuto Jr. because they cannot find the lethal drugs they need to kill the condemned man. Boise State Public Radio
Call it what it is: Sedition. Not only did federal prosecutors “succeed in convicting [Stewart] Rhodes and company, but by convicting him of this particular charge, they put the lie to the idea that what happened on January 6 was simply a few overzealous people who got a little excited but posed no threat to the peaceful transfer of power.” The Atlantic
The age of “pain refugees.” Patients who “had their pain controlled with long‐term opioid treatment are being denied treatment or involuntarily tapered off their pain control, as doctors fear arrest and an end to their medical careers.” The Cato Institute
Let’s end the war between the states. Time for a new “intrastate compact” that will end the odious practice of shipping migrants from one state to another as a political ploy. Washington Monthly
“Who will take responsibility for this travesty? Where is the backbone that will stand for justice?” A Republican legislator in Oklahoma calls out the state’s justice system for moving ahead with the planned execution of Richard Glossip. The Oklahoman TMP Context: Can the death penalty be fixed? The Marshall Project
Good news for lobbyists and corrupt politicians. The U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to restrict federal bribery laws. SCOTUSblog
No special master or special protection for Trump. Three Republican-nominated federal appeals court judges on Thursday handed former President Donald Trump a defeat in the case involving the FBI’s search of his Florida home. The Washington Post
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has the last word on Missouri’s execution of Kevin Johnson. The newest U.S. Supreme Court justice dissented from the court’s order allowing Johnson to be executed this week despite legitimate appeals claims. U.S. Supreme Court
A gun safety initiative elicits threats and lawlessness. “Far-right ghost gun enthusiasts are boldly threatening law enforcement more than previously seen on mainstream platforms, brandishing logos and designs of known anti-government groups such as the Boogaloo Bois and sharing tips on how to evade the new regulations.” HuffPost
When doctors are instruments of death by lethal injection. “The current moratorium on executions in Alabama is not cause for celebration. Alabama is not standing down — it is reloading.” Slate
In case you haven’t heard enough lately about the Texas Rangers. Stories to help you explore the gulf between the myth of the storied lawmen and the truth about their history of violence toward Mexican and Mexican American communities. Texas Monthly
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