In July 2017, President Donald J. Trump, as the nation’s “chief law enforcement officer” as he likes to call himself, implored police across the country not to be “too nice” when making an arrest. The President was speaking to a…
Category: Police Misconduct
2020
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Police Misconduct
Two white men, 64-year-old Gregory McMichael and his 34-year-old son, Travis, are under arrest for the February 23, 2020 shooting death of an unarmed African-American named Ahmaud Arbery, as he jogged through the predominantly white neighborhood in which the Travis’…
2020
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Police Misconduct | Prosecutorial Misconduct
How much should a state be required to pay a person it wrongfully convicts and keeps in prison for 43 years?
The State of Florida wrongfully convicted Nathan Meyers and his uncle, Clifford Williams, for a 1976 murder they…
2019
Category: Police Misconduct | terrorism
In the wake of 9/11, the federal government’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies, particularly the FBI, have targeted Muslim communities for “domestic surveillance” as likely hotbeds for terrorism, generally without any suspicion that a crime has occurred or is likely…
2019
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Police Misconduct | Prosecutorial Misconduct
In 2003, three men were indicted for capital murder in connection with the April 3rd murders of two people during an attempted robbery of a Harris County business, ACE America’s Cash Express. One of the victims was an employee at…
2018
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Police Misconduct
On August 28, 2018, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in a police excessive force case that will not please the law enforcement community.
Given today’s divisive political climate, the political makeup of the three-judge panel…
2018
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Police Misconduct
Those words were written by Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Don R. Willett in an August 31, 2018 decision—Zadeh v. Robinson.
In the Zadeh decision, Judge Willett expressed the strong view that the “doctrine of qualified immunity ……
2018
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Police Misconduct
The August 9, 2014 killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown, an African American, in Ferguson, Missouri by a white police officer named Darren Wilson during a street stop unleashed local civil disobedience and a violent, militarized police response. This tragic shooting…
2018
Category: Police Misconduct
It is horrific enough for a woman to be sexually assaulted, but the injury is compounded when those who are charged with protecting the victim and investigating the case, continue the abuse.
In the early morning hours of June…
2018
Category: Constitutional Law | Police Misconduct
The militarization of law enforcement in the United States began in earnest in 1990 when Congress enacted Section 1208 of the National Defense Authorization A(“Act”) which authorized the nation’s Defense Department to transfer surplus military equipment (such as small arms…