“A lack of human decency?” Jails across the country are overcrowded, understaffed, poorly managed, and increasingly dangerous, especially for those who suffer from addiction or mental health problems. The problem is bad in big cities, like Houston and New York, as well as in rural areas that operate with little public oversight. The Justice Department has failed to adequately track in-custody deaths, and the coronavirus only begins to explain the scope of what many experts call a growing crisis. The New York Times TMP Context: Why so many jails are in a state of meltdown. The Marshall Project Lindsey Graham, grand jury witness. After months of delay, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham testified on Tuesday before a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, about his role in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The Washington Post More: At least six people who took part in the events of Jan. 6 attended Trump’s 2024 campaign launch. Politico Related: A federal jury in Washington, D.C. this week convicted Capitol rioter Riley Williams of six of the eight charges against her. NBC News Voters passed a new gun law in Oregon. Sheriffs there say they’ll ignore it. A growing list of Oregon sheriffs say they will not enforce new gun restrictions endorsed by voters earlier this month. Measure 114 requires a safety course and a permit to purchase a firearm. Oregon Public Broadcasting TMP Context: Check to see if your local sheriff is willing to enforce constitutional provisions they disagree with. The Marshall Project Related: David DePape, the man charged with attacking Paul Pelosi last month, struggled with mental health issues before he embraced far-right conspiracy theories. The New York Times It’s never too late to do the right thing. Judge Anthony Kline got the chance to do something that most judges probably only dream about doing. Four decades after the jurist in California played a key role in dooming a teenager to decades in prison he got the opportunity to reconsider the evidence against her. This time, Kline did right by Jamesetta Guy. He ordered her freed and then, after discovering new evidence, moved to have her conviction erased from her record. For that, Kline, nearing retirement anyway, has been targeted by prosecutors who consider him unduly biased. The New York Times A massacre you may not have heard about. The U.S. Army was more directly involved than previously known in the Porvenir massacre in Texas a century ago, historians say. Texas Rangers and ranchers murdered 15 unarmed Mexican boys and men in 1918 and then pretended that there was a shootout to justify their racist violence. No one was ever charged in the killings and the victims’ families were never compensated for their loss. Now there is new evidence, from archeological recovery sites, suggesting that U.S. military weapons were used in the attack. The Wall Street Journal At least seven people, including the suspect, are dead following a mass shooting at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia late Tuesday night. NBC News Corionsa “Khorry” Ramey, the 19-year-old daughter of condemned prisoner Kevin Johnson, has sued Missouri officials seeking to witness her father’s scheduled Nov. 29 execution. State law prohibits anyone under 21 from attending an execution. St. Louis Post-Dispatch An Alabama woman who was jailed for using drugs during her pregnancy has filed a lawsuit claiming she was not pregnant at the time. AL.com The on-again, off-again investigation into former President Donald Trump’s role in making hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels is apparently on again in New York. The New York Times Add Massachusetts to the long list of states where police officers who have been fired for cause or who have resigned in disgrace quickly find new jobs as cops in nearby jurisdictions. WBUR TMP Context: Police recruiters have a few questions. The Marshall Project The North Carolina Supreme Court will now be controlled again by Republican appointees. That has some justice reform advocates in the state worried about a return to regressive sentencing policies and the further criminalization of abortion. NC Policy Watch Isn’t anyone going to do anything about the Little Rock Police Department? There’s new evidence that police officers there routinely violate the Fourth Amendment rights of suspects, writes Radley Balko. Substack Give Special Counsel Jack Smith a chance. “Although it is impossible to remove all hints of bias or conflict, or to depoliticize what will likely be a messy process if Trump is indicted, Smith’s appointment takes President Biden and the office of the presidency as far out of the loop of a Trump prosecution as the law allows.” The Bulwark More: What Smith should do, and when he should do it, according to a new mock prosecution memo. Just Security Sentencing judges can’t wash their hands of deplorable prison conditions. Federal judges should remember that the Bureau of Prisons is in crisis when they are deciding whether to sentence someone to prison when alternatives are available. Forbes Death denies the humanity and dignity of the victim. Texas should not execute Andre Thomas, a man so mentally ill he ate his own eyeball. Dallas Morning News TMP Context: Thomas’s case is one of potential jury bias and mental incompetency. The Marshall Project Everything old is new again. J. Edgar Hoover, the iconic FBI director, led a “serious and sustained” effort to disrupt the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s. The lessons gleaned by law enforcement apply to the new rise of white supremacy in the U.S. The Atlantic Rest in peace, Cecilla “Cissy” Suyat Marshall. The former NAACP legal secretary and wife of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, after whom The Marshall Project is named, died on Tuesday in Virginia. She was 94. The Washington Post “People loved to hear him.” William J. Kunkle, the prosecutor who put away serial killer John Wayne Gacy and then used his celebrity to talk and teach about the law, died last week in Illinois. He was 81. Chicago Sun-Times It’s Pamela Price’s time in Alameda County, California. The civil rights attorney won a closely-fought election to become district attorney in the Bay area. She’s promised to push back against harsh sentencing and racial disparities in policing. Bolts What bankruptcy judges are for. On the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in damage awards for pretending that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax, records reveal that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has begun to move around his assets in an effort to shield them from creditors. The Washington Post More proof of the healing power of horses. Welcome to the Wyoming Honor Farm, where incarcerated men learn about wild mustangs, and themselves, as they prepare to return back to society following lengthy prison terms. CBS News/60 Minutes Gobble, gobble. This is the last Opening Statement of the week. We are taking a few days off for Thanksgiving and will be back at it on Monday morning. We are thankful for everyone who contributes to and supports The Marshall Project, day in and out. | 
