by Kevin Bliss
David Robinson settled out of court with the city of Sikeston, Missouri, for $8 million for a wrongful murder conviction, which forced him to spend 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
Represented by Jonathan Potts, Robinson filed suit against the city of ...
by Kevin Bliss
Critics say the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) is responding to protestors of George Floyd’s May 25, 2020, death with increased violence and no fear of repercussion. Accusations have been made of beatings, pepper spraying, and threatening protestors with guns. Civilians complain that police illegally cover ...
by Kevin Bliss
Risk assessment tools are not effectively reducing pretrial detention or prejudicial profiling practices in determining bail. In addition, few counties concern themselves with the effectiveness of such programs, not even bothering to monitor their results.
Two organizations looking to make the government more transparent, Media Mobilizing Project ...
by Kevin Bliss
The $14 billion invested in police equipment and community policing in the U.S. has not helped instill trust and camaraderie between the police and black communities, says writer and activist Philip McHarris, in an article published in The Appeal.
In fact, it only offers more opportunity ...
by Kevin Bliss
Utah residents suffer from the highest payday and auto loan interest rates in the United States. It is one of only six states that does not have an interest-rate cap on such loans. Moreover, despite Congress’ ban on debtors’ prison, more and more residents are finding themselves ...
by Kevin Bliss
The Los Angeles Times used traffic stop data released by the Los Angeles Police Department (“LAPD”) under a new California law to calculate racial breakdowns of stops. The newspaper found that blacks and Latinos had a much higher chance of being pulled over than whites, although more ...
by Kevin Bliss
The NYC Medical Examiner’s office (“ME”) reviewed the DNA analysis procedure in a burglary case that was the only evidence used to charge Darrell Harris with the crime. They found that the DNA sample could have been contaminated, but only after Harris lost his job and $25,000 ...
by Kevin Bliss
Washington state has over 5,500 sealed juvenile records that are once again accessible to law enforcement agencies across the nation after a last-minute amendment for “officer safety” was added to a 2015 bipartisan sentencing reformation bill.
Tony Calero conducted an analysis when he was a graduate student ...
by Kevin Bliss
The New York Police Department (“NYPD”) has a history of denying freedom of public information requests, especially when it concerns surveillance equipment and information gathering technology.
Muckrock, an online records request monitoring database, showed that of the 500 requests monitored since 2017 only half were completed.
Vox ...
by Kevin Bliss
Louisiana has one of the U.S.’s toughest second-degree murder sentencing structures. If convicted, it is an automatic life without parole. The state currently has about 5,000 of its approximately 33,000 prisoners serving life sentences, 51 percent of those for a second-degree murder charge.
Hayward Jones is one ...
