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Welcome home, Rahsaan Thomas, co-host of the popular “Ear Hustle” podcast. Thomas was released from San Quentin State Prison in California on Wednesday after spending more than two decades behind bars. Los Angeles Times Thomas and his fellow prisoners became celebrities of sorts after they began streaming their smart, lively podcast in 2017. He was granted clemency one year ago by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The Associated Press More: Thomas is also a frequent contributing writer for The Marshall Project. Here’s his 2021 essay: “How I convinced my incarcerated peers to make language a priority.” The Marshall Project
“[T]here was no Great Reckoning in American policing.” The police killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis is a reminder of how far behind America is in meeting the goals of the racial justice and police reform movements of 2020. “Here is a department with a Black woman police chief, a majority-Black workforce, body cameras, de-escalation training, and a duty-to-intervene policy. And Tyre Nichols is still dead,” writes TMP Contributing Editor Wesley Lowery in his analysis of the systemic problems plaguing police departments. The Atlantic TMP Context: One obstacle to reform? The Whiteness of police chiefs. The Marshall Project
When a federal informant infiltrated a racial justice movement. The FBI used an informant with a long criminal history to surveil, interrupt and undermine the police protest movement in Denver that grew out of the murder of George Floyd in 2020. While acting as a leader of the movement, Michael Windecker II tried to entice people into committing crimes to discredit the movement, records and other evidence show, while sharing information about the protesters with federal law enforcement agents. Tactics like this mirrored those of the FBI’s disgraced Civil Rights–era surveillance program known as COINTELPRO. The Intercept
Help wanted: The Government Accountability Office says the Biden administration is violating a federal vacancies law by failing to have a Senate-confirmed director at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Three other officials are also serving without lawful authority, the federal oversight body concluded. The Hill Related: Read the report. U.S. GAO More: Congressional Republicans promise again to make life miserable for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as he tries to implement the White House’s immigration agenda. But conservative federal judges have already blocked many of the White House’s border policies. The New York Times
Texas executioners killed John Balentine by lethal injection on Wednesday. He was convicted of murdering three teenagers in January 1998. The Associated Press More: Balentine confessed to the murders. His lawyers say his trial was marked by jury bias and racism. Texas Tribune
Seven more police officers are under investigation in Memphis, Tennessee, for their roles in the killing of Tyre Nichols. Commercial Appeal At least one Memphis police officer took photos of Nichols after he was beaten and texted them to at least five other people, police officials said this week. The New York Times Former Memphis police recruiters say the department lowered its standards a few years ago. The Associated Press
A Milwaukee, Wisconsin, police officer was fatally shot early Tuesday by a teenager, a robbery suspect who officials say had been sentenced to probation in an unrelated case only hours earlier. The slain officer, Peter Jerving, was 37. The suspect, Terrell Thompson, 19, died at the scene. The Associated Press
A white supermajority of the Mississippi House voted this week to create a separate court system and an expanded police force within the city of Jackson that would be appointed completely by white state officials. Mississippi Today
Pain from efforts to inject lethal drugs into condemned prisoners in Alabama does not constitute “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment, the state’s attorney general asserted in a brief this week filed by lawyers for Kenneth Smith, who is on death row. AL.com
Let a thousand police misconduct lawsuits bloom. “Fear of lawsuits could be the motivator that gets localities to do what protests haven’t: fire abusive officers, reform hiring practices, and set higher standards going forward.” Boston Globe
He said, he said. Prosecutor Mark Pomerantz’s resignation letter from the Manhattan district attorney’s office last year caused a furor for alleging that his boss, Alvin Bragg, had unreasonably declined to charge former President Donald Trump. Pomerantz’s new book, however, contradicts many of the statements he made when he left. Just Security
A “suffocating number of other errors and misrepresentations.” A recent series about the media’s coverage of the Trump team’s Russia ties is a symptom of the problem of tribalism and bias the series was designed to combat, writes Marcy Wheeler. EmptyWheel
The freedom to walk. It’s time to legalize jaywalking, a relatively new crime brought to us by the automobile industry, which perpetuates economic and other disparities. Mother Jones
The bond between horses and humans. Larry Garrett was released from the notorious Holman prison in Alabama late last year after spending 37 years behind bars for burglary. His story is one of rescue and redemption. Alabama Appleseed
A guilty plea that saves federal resources. Patrick Crusius, accused of murdering 23 people in a racist 2019 attack at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to federal hate crime and weapons charges. The Justice Department announced earlier this year that it would not seek the death penalty against him because he faces capital charges under state law. The Associated Press
When a commutation isn’t. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has granted 123 commutations since he took office in 2019, but only a third of those people have actually been released from prison. The rest remain at the mercy of the state’s parole board. That number included Rahsaan Thomas until Wednesday, when he was released. Los Angeles Times
Grim life at the Gib Lewis prison unit in East Texas. Corrections officials in a Texas prison have left incarcerated men in cages without beds or toilets, sometimes for days, prison reform groups allege in a complaint they’ve filed with state officials. Texas Public Radio
“The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I’m like, ‘What the f—? How is this possible?’” How a team of amateur sleuths solved a cold-case Hollywood murder. Los Angeles Times
Traffic stops and the First Amendment. Residents of Winterville, North Carolina, have a First Amendment right to livestream the police during a traffic stop, but not to sue a police officer who tries to stop them, a federal appeals court ruled this week. The Washington Post Related: Read the ruling. 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
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