The experience of being trans behind bars. Guards “still call me by the wrong name and pronouns all the time,” says Willow Eva Williams in Texas. “Put aside the gender dysphoria diagnosis, being transgender — just being a human being in corrections is hard,” says Ronnie Fuller in Georgia. “Even with hormones, it’s still so dehumanizing to be defined by a body part that I would absolutely get rid of if I could,” says Reiyn Keohane in Florida. In Tennessee, April Turner Cassadine says: “Recently I’ve been signing up for mental health care, and they’ve been ignoring my requests. And they just abruptly stopped my hormones. I don’t know why.” TMP’s Beth Schwartzapfel has the latest in our “Life Inside” series. The Marshall Project
Trump-appointed justices appear poised to help the former president delay his federal criminal trials until after the November election. The Washington Post A historic U.S. Supreme Court oral argument on Thursday revealed a sharp divide over whether Donald Trump has immunity from prosecution for his attempts to overturn the election and other crimes. The New York Times Related analysis: The court’s conservatives signal they are ready to rewrite the Constitution to include presidential immunity. The New Republic Trump presses for a “vision of the presidency that operates above the law.” The New York Times The most likely scenario is further delay in prosecuting Trump under federal law. NBC News
Get ready for a retrial of Harvey Weinstein after New York’s highest court overturned his 2020 rape conviction. In a 4-3 ruling, state justices ruled that Weinstein’s trial judge improperly allowed jurors to hear testimony from other women who alleged they were sexually assaulted by Weinstein. Los Angeles Times The disgraced Hollywood mogul is now serving a 16-year prison in California after he was convicted there of sexual assault. The Associated Press Experts say they aren’t shocked that Weinstein’s New York conviction was overturned. The New York Times Related analysis: #MeToo meets the criminal rules of evidence. New York Magazine
The fate of migrants. A grand jury in El Paso County, Texas, indicted more than 140 asylum-seekers and other migrants on misdemeanor rioting charges this week. The group was apprehended earlier this month for allegedly attempting to cut through razor wire at the border. The Associated Press Border crossings near San Diego are rising, officials say. The last time the region had the highest migrant arrest rate in the U.S. was 1999. Los Angeles Times More: Good news for some of the migrants sent to Massachusetts by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022. They are closer to obtaining special U-visas reserved for crime victims. WGBH
Police arrested more than 100 protesters at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts early Thursday. The Boston Globe In Atlanta, Georgia, police violently swept an encampment and arrested and tased protesters at Emory University. Atlanta Journal-Constitution At the University of Minnesota, police arrested protesters there as well. MPR News More arrests at campuses around the U.S. The Washington Post
Police in Chicago, Illinois, killed Dexter Reed by firing nearly 100 rounds at him during a traffic stop last month. This week, Reed’s family filed an 81-page federal wrongful death lawsuit against the officers, the city and the police department. A report from a civilian police accountability group found that Reed fired at officers first, after they drew their guns. The Associated Press
Minnesota’s sex offender system is a costly failure, according to a new study. The state spent over $110 million to keep 730 people locked away, even after they served their criminal sentences. Minneapolis Star Tribune TMP Context: What to do with people convicted of violent sex offenses. The Marshall Project
State attorneys in California filed criminal charges this week against a key Los Angeles County prosecutor for improperly accessing and using confidential police records. Los Angeles Times
Another form of voter suppression in Georgia, where Republican lawmakers want to ban people who are homeless from receiving mail-in ballots. The New York Times
The “coup curious” Republican majority on the U.S. Supreme Court signals it will help protect an insurrectionist. “These justices donned the attitude of cynical partisans, repeatedly lending legitimacy to the former president’s outrageous claims of immunity from criminal prosecution.” Slate “The court’s questions raised the additional alarming prospect that it could confer the kind of expansive presidential immunity that would further weaken the constitutional principle that a president is not a king.” Los Angeles Times
Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton wants to go to war with protesters. “[T]he kinds of mass violence and unrest that would justify deploying the National Guard are currently absent, and the use of state force against the protesters is likely to escalate tensions rather than quell them.” The Atlantic
New York prosecutors detail their theory of the “hush money” election interference case against Trump. “Taking part in a ‘criminal conspiracy’ sounds a lot worse than allegedly violating Byzantine campaign finance laws that nobody really understands and that might not normally even be enforced properly anyhow.” Slate
Abortion rights and the 2024 election. Why some congressional Democrats aren’t pushing to repeal the Comstock Act, an outdated federal law that could be used to prosecute people who travel between states to get an abortion. The New Republic
“Raise the Age” legislation aimed at “emerging adults,” aged 18-20, finally makes progress in Massachusetts. “The science on brain development is solid. Now the law should follow the science.” The Boston Globe TMP Context: The fine print in New York’s “Raise the Age” law. The Marshall Project
A nation awash in guns and cars predictably sees a rise in road rage shootings. Between 2014 and 2023, the number of people shot in road rage incidents surged more than 400%, from 92 to 481, according to a new analysis. The Trace
Forever war. Military prosecutors told a judge this week that the men accused of plotting the 9/11 terror attacks can be imprisoned for the rest of their lives, even if their sentences are completed. But the terror-law detainees have been held for more than two decades without trial, let alone a sentence, at the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The New York Times
Trouble brewing at polling places. Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law who has spread false claims about the 2020 election, says partisan operatives will be able to physically handle completed ballots this November. Experts say that’s improper. Yahoo News/Huff Post
Basketball as therapy behind bars. “When I listen to the broadcast of Knicks games in my prison cell now, I try to imagine myself back in Madison Square Garden. I used to sit up in the cheap nosebleed seats, surrounded by diehard fans like the ones I hear chanting.” Prison Journalism Project
One step closer to AI-generated police reports. The technology company Axon conducted a study to compare the quality between report narratives written with a new AI software product titled “Draft One” and those written by actual human beings “Results showed that Draft One performed equal to or better than officer-only report narratives across five dimensions, including completeness, neutrality, objectivity, terminology and coherence.” Police1
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