FW: An execution in Arkansas
Dianne Tramutola-Lawson
From: The Marshall Project [mailto:info=themarshall...@mail145.atl221.rsgsv.net] On Behalf Of The Marshall Project
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2017 5:42 AM
Subject: An execution in Arkansas
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Opening Statement |
Edited by Andrew Cohen |
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Opening Statement is our pick of the day’s criminal justice news. Not a subscriber? Sign up. For original reporting from The Marshall Project, visit our website. |
No final words and a last meal of communion. After an eleventh-hour flurry of litigation and a series of Supreme Court orders, Arkansas executed convicted murderer Ledell Lee shortly before midnight local time Thursday night. It was the state’s first execution since 2005. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Lee’s case was marked by misconduct by lawyers, judges, and questions about DNA. The Intercept More: Arkansas officials banned reporters from using pens and paper to chronicle the event. KUAR Practical, cultural obstacles marked state saga. The New York Times Still more: The next execution there is scheduled in three days. The Marshall Project Related: In Virginia, a commutation to a life sentence for a condemned prisoner who had been scheduled to be put to death next week. Richmond Times-Dispatch Texas won’t get its illegal execution drugs from India after all, the Trump administration confirms. Buzzfeed Finally: The lack of science behind lethal injection. Wired 21,587 wrongful convictions, dismissed with prejudice, as the crime lab scandal in Massachusetts enters a definitive new phase. The state’s top court made it official, ending a long chapter in the biggest evidence-tainting cases in American history. A few hundred cases still could be prosecuted. WBUR More: A county-by-county guide. MassLive Related: Here’s the court order finalizing the dismissals. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court More: For most, freedom from at least some of the collateral consequences of their wrongful convictions. ProPublica The perils of drug regulation. Heroin and marijuana are different, obviously, and despite what you may hear from Trump officials, it’s hard to argue that one is a gateway to the other. But the scope of the nation’s opioid crisis — and the federal government’s inability to control it — has caused some to rethink their belief in drug legalization. Vox Meanwhile: Support for marijuana legalization at an all-time high. CBS News Related: How the opioid epidemic is challenging Florida’s famous recovery industry. WNYC More: Cherokee Nation sues drug companies, alleging a broad conspiracy to flood markets with opioids. The Washington Post “Your father, he died today.” Tyshaun McPhatter, age 7, lost his father to gunfire in Washington, D.C., on the first day of March. The boy had known violence all his young life. It was all around him, the bullets, the fear and the grief. But despite the efforts of his parents, his school, the police, and so many others sick of the toll, McPhatter lost what can never be replaced. Now, for him and countless other child victims in America, the question is whether and to what extent he can break the cycle so that his own child will never have to feel his pain. The Washington Post
I paid for a fancy jail. The alternative was terrifying. The family of Luicci Nader, age 18, paid more than $18,000 so he could serve six months on a felony vehicular manslaughter rap in a southern California “pay-to-stay” jail. Then there was the $6,000 more his parents spent on jailhouse phone calls. Nader describes conditions of confinement that most inmates would treasure, but he says if he had the choice again he’d rather stay at another local jail he hears is even more lenient than the Seal Beach jail where he served his time. In collaboration with Vice, here is the latest in our “Life Inside” series. The Marshall Project
Alabama, a state notorious for wrongful convictions in capital cases, wants to streamline death row appeals again. AL.com Meet the former Louisiana sheriff, now a state legislator, who wants to reduce the amount of money sheriffs can garnish from the wages of state prisoners in local jails. The Times-Picayune Did you hear the one about the Florida man who spent 1,140 days in jail before prosecutors decided the murder case against him was weak? He’s now been released by a judge. Florida Times-Union New York lawmakers quietly passed a broad new record-sealing law designed to protect from public view a spate of adult convictions. Collateral Consequences Resource Center TMP Context: Five things you didn’t know about clearing your record. The Marshall Project Maryland again tries, and fails, to pass a rape bill that would help protect the custodial rights of women who are impregnated by their attackers. The New York Times
Can the police retaliate against you for refusing to answer their questions? Yes, no, and maybe. A constitutional analysis. The Washington Post A double standard, in death and life, for Aaron Hernandez. What about the non-famous inmates who commit suicide? What about the murder victims of non-famous athletes? Boston Globe Related: How he spent those four years in prison. USA Today More: How little we really know about prison suicide. Slate Speaking of new federal prosecutors. The Senate Judiciary Committee cannot continue to abdicate its duty to press potential U.S. Attorneys about prosecutorial discretion and misconduct. Washington Examiner A fair trial ought to include the right to independent mental health review. Especially in capital cases. And the Supreme Court should say so. American Constitution Society Don’t tread on me. The citizens of Arizona’s long fight against police radar cameras. Reason
White Supremacy of the Day: Tanya Gersh, a mother and wife and victim of vicious threats, explains what it’s like to be at the epicenter of a neo-Nazi “troll storm.” The Guardian Protest of the Day: Kevin Sharp resigned as a federal judge on Friday, just six years into his tenure. Then he blasted the idea of mandatory minimum sentences. The Tennessean Job Opportunities of the Day: Some states are making it easier for ex-offenders to get jobs in health care. Others are not. Pew Charitable Trusts Poll of the Day: Asian-Americans are split generationally when it comes to perceptions of police treatment (and mistreatment). NPR Podcast of the Day: The Providence Journal’s Crimetown podcast — “an unending assortment of wiseguys, mooks, capos, made guys, and friends of the family” — is a big hit. Nieman Lab |
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