by Ed Lyon
Issues facing exonerees and wrongfully convicted individuals have been recurring topics in CLN and PLN. Still, there’s another category of arguably similarly situated citizens that must also be paid some attention: Those who were wrongfully accused of crimes they did not commit.
Even though a great ...
by Ed Lyon
Christopher Tapp of Idaho Falls, Idaho, was convicted of a murder and rape after 20-plus hours of interrogations over a three-week period in 1996. He was 19 at the time of his arrest.
Despite being innocent of the crime, after intensive browbeating by cops, he pleaded guilty. ...
by Ed Lyon
Calling for “justice for Breonna,” a recent vigil in Louisville and demonstrations across the country have focused on the young unarmed Black woman fatally shot by police in her own bed.
Breonna Taylor was a hard-working emergency room technician on the front lines in the nation’s fight ...
by Ed Lyon
Pedro Barbosa lives in New York City. Michael Bergmann is a former New York City cop who was fired from the force for providing false testimony in court that could have sent Barbosa to prison for up to 15 years.
“They [referring to Bergmann and his partner] ...
by Ed Lyon
The U.S. Department of Labor ranks hospitals as one of the most dangerous workplaces for a person to work. It seems that hospitals are even more dangerous a venue for a mentally ill person seeking treatment, particularly when police are involved.
“Cops are not trained in best ...
by Ed Lyon
It is a rare week to pass without a report of an accidental shooting by police.
The reason for better than 99 percent of these accidental weapon discharges is the lack of ongoing firearm training after a law enforcement officer completes initial academy training.
Most firearms training ...
by Ed Lyon
Jason Brown was a ‘lock ‘em up tight and throw away the key’ type. One of the most disliked prosecutors in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, history, he was a hard-charging and inflexibly tough prosecutor who pushed for maximum punishments. Several of them were recounted by investigative journalist Jon ...
by Ed Lyon
State after state is legalizing the use and possession of small amounts of marijuana. Because of the revenues prosecuting low-level drug crimes saps from prosecutors, more and more of them in major jurisdictions are refusing to accept and prosecute these small-time crimes.
Examples include Rachel Rollins of ...
by Ed Lyon
On January 8, 2020, Kerry Robinson began the New Year and a new life as he left Georgia’s Coffee Correctional Facility a free man. He had spent nearly 18 years in prison for a brutal group rape he had nothing to do with.
As science in general ...
by Ed Lyon
Seventy-two-year-old grandmother Vicki Henry has a mission in life. Because of what she perceives as injustices affecting her son, who is serving a 25-year sentence on child pornography convictions, she aims to do away with all public sex-offender registries. She heads a small group of like-minded ...
