Coming to a prison tablet soon. The Marshall Project will make its work available to incarcerated people who get their news on computer tablets operated by companies that charge rates often criticized as exorbitant. We did not come to this decision lightly, writes Lawrence Bartley, publisher of “Life Inside,” TMP’s print publication distributed in hundreds of prisons. TMP asked incarcerated people if they wanted the option of reading our work on tablets, and they resoundingly told us they would. We’ve insisted on several conditions and guarantees to ensure our work is not censored. The Marshall Project
The Marshall Project and Vice News to launch “Inside Story” video series. Developed by formerly incarcerated people, the first-of-its-kind video series will bring critical accountability and investigative journalism on the criminal justice system to incarcerated people—and those beyond bars, too. Hosted and co-created by TMP’s Lawrence Bartley, the show is a collaboration with the Emmy-winning VICE News team. Each episode will be available online at noon EST every Thursday, beginning Feb. 2. The Marshall Project
Arrests, charges and tension in Tennessee. The five former Memphis police officers who beat motorist Tyre Nichols earlier this month were arrested and charged on Thursday with counts ranging from second-degree murder to aggravated kidnapping to “official misconduct.” The Washington Post The defendants, all of whom are Black, were booked into custody at the Shelby County Jail one day before the scheduled public release of video of the incident. Commercial Appeal More: Cerelyn Davis, the city’s police chief, calls the treatment of Nichols “a failing of basic humanity.” NPR
“Head-spinning” new details about how former U.S. Attorney General William Barr tried to influence a Justice Department investigation so it would help Donald Trump. The New York Times More “not guilty” pleas from Charles McGonigal, the former FBI counterterrorism official now also accused of falsifying documents to hide his ties to Russian oligarchs. Courthouse News More: Megan Squire was among the first researchers to discover the Proud Boys as part of her work on extremist groups. That was in 2017. Six years later, she’s watching members of the group stand trial for seditious conspiracy. The Washington Post
The future is now for Nick Fuentes. The openly racist Holocaust denier finds himself in the spotlight following his famous dinner last year with former President Donald Trump. What’s become clear is that elected Republican officials, including powerful members of Congress, are fishing for his support. Why? “From Father Coughlin to Donald Trump, demagogues have long commingled racist and anti-Semitic appeals with fears of economic decline. Fuentes’ power comes from layering on a generational critique that taps into young people’s apprehension that their prospects are dimming,” writes Ali Breland. Mother Jones
A federal jury in New York on Thursday convicted the Islamic extremist who killed eight people with his truck on a crowded Manhattan bike path in 2017. Sayfullo Saipov faces the possibility of the federal death sentence. The state has no death penalty, and it's been 69 years since the last execution there. The Associated Press
The Justice Department announced this week that “there is reasonable cause to believe” that Louisiana corrections officials are violating the Fourteenth Amendment by “routinely” confining prisoners long past the dates when they are legally entitled to be released. The New York Times Nearly 27% of prisoners were held beyond their release dates in a four-month period last year alone. CNN Related: How the feds announced the news. Justice Department
Nearly a week after the Monterey Park shooting, California police are still struggling to discover the gunman’s motives. Los Angeles Times Related Commentary: “Mass shooters are not the victims. But in order to prevent future tragedies, we must treat the underlying pathologies that feed the shooters’ despair.” The New York Times
A New Mexico judge this week denied bail to Solomon Pena, the failed Republican candidate who allegedly hired four people to shoot at the homes of Democratic officials in Albuquerque. The judge found Pena a danger to the community. The Associated Press
The Hazelton penitentiary, the federal prison in West Virginia where James “Whitey” Bulger was murdered in 2018, remains dangerously understaffed and violent. During one shift last month, 30 knives were seized from prisoners. USA Today
The devil’s in the details. Footnotes in the Jan. 6 Committee's report weave together the narrative of the effort by former President Donald Trump and others to overturn the 2020 election results. The Washington Post More: Inside a Fulton County, Georgia, courtroom for a historic hearing over special grand jury secrecy in the election interference case. Lawfare
You (still) have the right to remain silent. It’s possible, even likely, that actor Alec Baldwin talked himself into legal trouble over a fatal shooting on a movie set in New Mexico. The New York Times
Life at an Indiana mosque includes embracing the stranger at the gate. Even after that stranger “confessed that when he had first arrived at the mosque, he had planned to murder us by blowing up the building with an IED he had built himself.” The Washington Post
“Routine, systematic violations of the Fourth Amendment.” Add North Carolina to the growing list of jurisdictions where illegal no-knock police raids are common, writes Radley Balko. Substack TMP Context: Kentucky law, no-knock raids and Breonna Taylor. The Marshall Project
A sex trafficking sting that’s far less impressive than it seems. Why is a federal agency that claims to be about fighting organized transnational crime “spending its time plotting the arrest of high school teachers, firefighters, and youth pastors for trying to engage in private and consensual activity”? Reason
Recognition for our work. Testify, a comprehensive analysis of Cuyahoga County courts by The Marshall Project, WOVU and Cleveland Documenters, won third-place honors from the 2022 Philip Meyer Journalism Award. The team responsible for the project includes: Rachel Dissell, Ilica Mahajan, Wesley Lowery, Anna Flagg, Elan Kiderman Ullendorff, Katie Park, Celina Fang, Ashley Dye, Raghuram Vadarevu, John G., Kellie Morris, Michelle Pitcher, Nicole Lewis, Ryan Murphy, Ariel Goodman and Aaron Colby Williams. The work took 18 months and was led by TMP Editor-in-Chief Susan Chira and TMP Data Editor David Eads.
Feds say they’ve taken down the site of a cybercriminal group that extorted schools, hospitals and governmental agencies around the world. The group, Hive, is reportedly one of the most prolific hacking gangs in the world, but the FBI announced no arrests. NBC News
More 2022 crime statistics. The number of homicides last year was 4% lower than 2021, about 240 fewer murders in the cities that publicly report monthly homicide data, concludes a new data study. The national homicide rate remained 34% higher than in 2019, and about half the historical nationwide peaks in 1980 and 1991. Council on Criminal Justice
“Misguided” but good faith prevails in closely watched pornography case. A Colorado judge this week dismissed charges against a high school principal who faced up to 12 years in prison for investigating a tip that his students were sexting one another. Colorado Sun
Immediate problems with the new border app. Asylum seekers and other migrants report glitches with CBP One, the new government app designed to help people gain port-of-entry appointments with federal immigration agents. San Diego Union-Tribune
When Google does the police work. The increasing use of Geofence warrants, which can mine location data from millions of cellphones, is at the center of an appeal in a murder case in California. NBC News
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