A Texas African-American woman was sentenced last March to five years in a state prison because she voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election. Crystal Mason ran afoul of Texas’s voting laws because she was on federal supervised release from…
Category: Criminal Justice Reform
2019
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Criminal Law | Immigration Crimes
Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015 with a direct, blatant racist appeal. A 2018 study by the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences found it was that fascist oriented ideological appeal that drove many white voters to the…
2019
Category: Criminal Justice Reform
The Texas Tribune recently reported that the Texas Legislature will once again take up the politically controversial issue of bail reform. Bipartisan legislation introduced by State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, and Rep. Andrew Murr, R-Junction, would, reports Tribune writer Jolie…
2019
Category: Appeals | Capital Crimes | Criminal Justice Reform
Robert Jennings was 31 years old when he entered a Houston adult book store on July 20, 1988 with the intent to rob it. He had already established an extensive criminal history, including some violent crimes. What Jennings didn’t anticipate…
2019
Category: Constitutional Law | Corruption | Criminal Justice Reform
Marzieh Hashemi is natural born citizen of the United States. She was born in New Orleans in 1959 and given her American name, Melanie Franklin. Wikipedia entries state that she was reared in an African-American Christian family in Louisiana.
…
2019
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Death Penalty
The impending February 28, 2019 execution date for 70-year-old Texas condemned inmate Billie Coble underscores the issue of the nation’s aging death row population. According to the Texas Tribune, there were 224 inmates housed on Texas’s death row as of…
2019
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Death Penalty
In 2008, Blaine Milam and Jessica Carson were 18-year-old teenagers living together in Milam’s trailer in Rusk County, Texas. Jessica had a 13-month-old child named Amora Carson. The couple met earlier that year while Jessica was still in high school.…
2019
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Criminal Law
The recent, and longest, government shutdown has focused public attention on claims by President Donald Trump and his Wall proponents that crime is not only a major problem but is actually out of control along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Both…
2019
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Prosecutorial Misconduct
Bite mark evidence has long been a discredit forensic science. The FBI has renounced it and the American Dental Association does not recognize it.
And for good reason.
In June 2013, USAToday reported that 20 men convicted or…
2019
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Immigration Crimes
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Republican candidate promised potential voters that he would “drain the swamp” in Washington, D.C. and “make our government honest once again.”
President Trump is unquestionably the most prolific liar in our presidential history. The…