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“Affluenza”: The Latest Criminal Defense For The Spoiled Rich
There’s a tired and persistent canard that criminals end up going without punishment for their violations because they convince lawyers and judges that they were so victimized as children by poverty or...
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“A Nation Divided, With Liberty And Justice For Some”: White-Collar Crimes...
It swallowed people up. That’s what it really did, if you want to know the truth. It swallowed them up whole, swallowed them up by the millions. In the process, it hollowed out communities, broke...
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“A Nation Of Cultural Illiterates”: What’s Next In Ferguson? Let’s Try A...
What next? That’s what should concern us now. When the nightly dance of angry protesters, opportunistic criminals, and inept police clashing over the shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown...
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“When Youthful Mistakes Turn Deadly”: The Shameful Disparities In The...
To be young, male and black in America means not being allowed to make mistakes. Forgetting this, as we’ve seen so many times, can be fatal. The case of Michael Brown, who was laid to rest Monday, is...
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“Meaningful Change”: Eric Holder Transformed The Attorney General Into An...
On September 25, Attorney General Eric Holder announced his resignation. He made history as the nation’s first African American attorney general and will most likely be remembered for his vigorous...
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“It Makes You Wonder”: George Zimmerman, Darren Wilson And The Kickstarted...
I learned a lot of shocking things reporting “Zimmerman Family Values” for the new issue of GQ. But one really creeped up on me. From nearly the second the Florida neighborhood watchman shot to death...
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“Broken Windows Policing”: Eric Garner Was Choked To Death For Selling Loosies
The controversial deaths of African Americans Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in Staten Island at the hands of white police officers don’t just speak to racial divides and raise questions of...
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“Two Grand Juries, The Same Disappointing Result”: The Criminal Justice...
No expressions of sympathy or regret can resurrect Eric Garner, the New York City man killed by police in July. Garner died after an officer placed him in what appears to be a chokehold during an...
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“The Only Way To End Police Violence”: Convince Americans That Their Lives...
Here’s something one is not supposed to say at a time like this, but it’s true and we all know it’s true, so let’s say it: There will be more Eric Garners; more Michael Browns. There will be, it’s sad...
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“Where Anger And Fear Have Brought Us”: Children Are Children, No Matter...
Darren Wilson made if very plain in his testimony before the grand jury that he was afraid of Michael Brown. As a matter of fact, his entire case is based on whether or not people believe that to be...
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“A Relic Of Frontier Barbarism:” The Case Of Scott Panetti — And The True...
So what does “cruel and unusual” mean? I once asked that of a law professor. The Eighth Amendment prohibits “cruel and unusual” punishment, but I figured there had to be some technical definition I, as...
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“An Outlier For All The Wrong Reasons”: What America’s Gun-Toting Cops Look...
From protests in Washington, the police shooting of an unarmed teen in suburban St. Louis looks tragic. From rallies in Los Angeles, the death of a man caught selling cigarettes in New York City looks...
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“Is It Bad Enough Yet?”: “True Citizenship” In The Words Of Jefferson, Is...
The police killing unarmed civilians. Horrifying income inequality. Rotting infrastructure and an unsafe “safety net.” An inability to respond to climate, public health and environmental threats. A...
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“Why We Can’t Educate Racism Away”: At Its Root, Racism Is A Structural Problem
How prejudiced are Americans? The internet knows. Whether it’s racism, sexism, cissexism, transphobia, classism, sizeism, or ableism, online residents are watching out for it and pointing it out at...
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“Race, The Police And The Propaganda”: There’s A Different Criminal Justice...
Welcome visitors to New York City! This has been the best time ever to urinate on a street, sneak onto the subway or run a red light, for the police force has been on a virtual strike. Police officers...
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“Privilege Of Arrest Without Incident”: Take A Moment And Consider This, Take...
The day after Christmas, a shooter terrorized the streets of a Chattanooga, Tenn., neighborhood. According to the local newspaper, the shooter was “wearing body armor” and “firing multiple shots out...
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“Washington, Carver, And… Zimmerman”: We Can’t Let Our Heroes Be Vilified By...
As George Zimmerman finds himself in the news again for yet another charge of domestic violence, I am reminded of the thing that baffled me most in this bizarre series of events. It wasn’t just that...
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“What It Means To ‘Love America'”: To Believe We Should Evolve And Change...
On May 30, 2013, Kalief Browder was finally released after more than three years in Rikers Island. His crime? There wasn’t one. He was accused of stealing a backpack and the backlog in the courts meant...
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“Sobering Findings”: Study; Killers Are Less Likely To Be Executed If Their...
Black people are much more frequently executed for killing white people than white people are for killing black people, and capital punishment is rarely used at all when victims are black — especially...
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“Higher Courts Let Prosecutors Get Away With Murder”: Supreme Courts Bear...
For anyone studying the bubbling issue of prosecutor misconduct, the LAT states—Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas—form a good lab. March alone brewed up: —belated charges against a prosecutor in Texas,...
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