criminal justice
September 15, 2022 -
In recent years, the North Carolina Supreme Court has addressed persistent injustices in the criminal legal system, including racism in jury selection. But the court could reverse course if Republicans win a majority this November.
August 11, 2022 -
As climate change-fueled heat waves become more frequent and intense, many incarcerated people endure dangerous triple-digit temperatures for long periods. Efforts are underway in some states to bring relief from the heat — and to challenge the underlying constitutional provisions that allow prisoners to be treated as subhuman.
January 27, 2022 -
A formerly incarcerated person who went on to become a public defender in Nashville, Haynes made headlines when she ran for Congress in 2020. Now a voting rights advocate with the Sentencing Project, she has a new book out about fixing the brutality of the criminal justice system titled "Bending the Arc" and recently talked about it with Facing South.
October 5, 2020 -
Republicans in Georgia have maneuvered to stop competitive elections for some judicial and prosecutorial positions, passing a law in 2018 that gives Gov. Brian Kemp the power to fill certain vacancies. A federal judge struck down the law, but now the case is with the state Supreme Court.
June 3, 2020 -
Stacked with appointments from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida Supreme Court is quickly overturning previous decisions that barred the death penalty for some defendants with intellectual disabilities and those who were sentenced by non-unanimous juries.
May 4, 2020 -
The decision is the first time the court has ruled against prosecutors on a claim of discrimination against black jurors. The court's only Republican justice dissented.
October 10, 2019 -
Reed, who is African-American, was convicted in 1998 of raping and murdering a white woman based on DNA evidence — but he says they were having a secret affair, which the woman's cousin confirms. The case fits a pattern of questionable convictions of Black men for crimes against whites in Texas.
