see also Piper's own reporting on this: boltsmag.org/chris-duncan...

Louisiana GOP races to eliminate an elected office won by an exonerated man A New Orleans man exonerated after serving nearly 30 years in prison has a new fight on his hands. Calvin Duncan has been elected as the city's new clerk of criminal court, but now Republican lawmakers are racing to eliminate the position.

I tend to agree w people who say innocence cases are the low-hanging fruit of carceral reform, but it's remarkable -
& deeply symptomatic - how far Louisiana officials will go to deny that these clear miscarriages of justice occur & even retaliate against their victims
apnews.com/article/new-...

Unmasking the Paramilitary Agents Behind Trump’s Violent Immigration Crackdown A WIRED analysis of DHS records identified dozens of specialized federal agents who used force against US civilians during the largest known deployment of its kind in US history.

NEW: A @wired.com investigation based on DHS records ID’d the paramilitary Border Patrol units involved in high-profile violent confrontations with civilians during Midway Blitz—and much more. @awinston.bsky.social & @regret.bsky.social w/ the scoop www.wired.com/story/border...

Israel’s Message to a Broad Swath of Lebanon: Shiites Must Go

"Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz laid out in the starkest terms yet that Israel plans to occupy nearly 10% of the country.

...Katz previously specified that Shiites would not be allowed to return and likened Israel’s strategy in Lebanon to that in Gaza."
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/w...

www.startribune.com/minnesota-su... Interesting development as DAs and state AGs seeking to hold federal agents accountable for abuse navigate pretty uncharted waters

Anti-ICE protesters accused of being part of antifa found guilty of support for terrorism in Texas Case was seen as major test of the first amendment and whether the US could use broad anti-terrorism statute to prosecute leftwing protesters

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026... this is really so outrageous. one of the defendants wasn't even at the protest, was only charged w concealing a document (for "moving leftwing zines" !) and now faces up to 40 years in federal prison.

Based on something I dug up for this piece – that Santa Clara DA Jeff Rosen's campaign website has a "fighting Anti-Semitism" page where he boasts about prosecuting the Stanford students – the students' lawyers have moved to kick Rosen's office off its retrial. boltsmag.org/stanford-san...

The DA's office is fighting the motion, saying retrial is set for Monday & it's too late for more discovery. The first trial ended in a hopelessly deadlocked jury.

“DA Jeff Rosen’s ‘fighting anti-semitism’ website is the core of the recusal motion,” defense attorney Avi Singh told the court. Singh found that Rosen's campaign created the webpage for a private fundraiser – asking for donations & citing his prosecution of the students, the harshest in the nation

Based on something I dug up for this piece – that Santa Clara DA Jeff Rosen's campaign website has a "fighting Anti-Semitism" page where he boasts about prosecuting the Stanford students – the students' lawyers have moved to kick Rosen's office off its retrial. boltsmag.org/stanford-san...

Today is the 1 year anniversary of Jessie Hoffman's execution. In the past yr, Louisiana has kept trying to kill its death row prisoners (thus far failing), restricted post conviction relief to expedite killings–& Chris Duncan's conviction was vacated, yet more proof of a fundamentally flawed system

After 28 Years Trapped in a Legal Nightmare, Anthony Sims Is No Longer 'Guilty' A state appeals court judge overturned Sims' conviction for a 1998 murder after years of resistance from the Brooklyn DA's office.

Five years ago, @elizabethweill.bsky.social and I did a deep dive for @nysfocus.bsky.social on the many irregularities in the case against Anthony Sims. Now, 28 years after his conviction, he's finally getting a new trial! hellgatenyc.com/after-28-yea...

She Spent Nearly 23 Years in Prison for a Crime She Didn’t Commit. Now She May Be Deported. On Monday, Carmen Mejia was officially exonerated in the 2003 scalding death of an infant.

The shadow of a felony conviction and prison time still hang over a lot of exonerees after their release, affecting their lives and circumscribing their opportunities in various ways, but this really takes the cake:

www.texasmonthly.com/news-politic...

My guess is that they're worried admitting that he's innocent would expose them to liability. There's a lot of police and prosecutorial misconduct in this case, a deeper examination of which got cut from my piece because there simply wasn't space - the jailhouse informant is a crazy story in itself

This is an excellent, deep, deep report into a catastrophically flawed capital punishment case. Long but extremely worth your while.

This is what Jacob Hamm, Haley's cousin, said at the hearing:

Chris's conviction was overturned & he's been out of Angola since November, but the state is *still* trying to reinstate his guilty verdict & death sentence. The family of the girl he was accused of killing now believes deeply in his innocence & has filed a remarkable amicus brief:

What To Do When Your Popular Sheriff Loses His Insurance Counties get insurance policies to cover their costs in case someone sues the sheriff or his or her deputies. But what happens when the people who pay the bills can't tell the sheriff what to do?

Here's something I learned in researching this story: Since the death of George Floyd, 2/3rds of the private companies that provided liability insurance to law enforcement agencies pulled out, and those that remained have increased their rates and lowered caps.
www.ncrabbithole.com/p/what-to-do...

This should be a front-page scandal.

Committee to Protect Journalists Reports a Record 129 Journalists Killed in 2025 For both 2024 and 2025, the Israeli military was responsible for two-thirds of all press killings.

A record 129 press workers were killed worldwide in 2025, more in one year than in any of the previous three decades. The previous record was set in 2024. For both 2024 and 2025, the Israeli military was responsible for two-thirds of all press killings.

great reporting on the DA's race in Buncombe County. Living here for so long, I'm struck by the fact that there's only been 2 DAs over the last 35 years. Whoever wins will not only have to deal with Iryna's Law, etc. but will have to contend with the problematic legacies of their predecessors

L.A. TACO Investigative Journalism Fund By L.A. TACO

Support Lex and @lataco.bsky.social's invaluable contributions to investigative journalism in LA: givebutter.com/la-taco-inve...

Inside ICE’s Only Contract with a Blue State - Bolts As part of a 287(g) contract between state officials and ICE, Massachusetts continues to release prisoners into deportation—even as state lawmakers look to ban other forms of ICE collaboration.

In MA, politicians & groups normally supportive of immigrants make exceptions for prisoners.

"People are more willing to talk about banning a hypothetical 287(g) with a hypothetical police department than they are a real 287(g) with the MA Department of Correction."

boltsmag.org/massachusett...

Update: the judge in the Stanford case has declared a mistrial, with jurors "hopelessly deadlocked" on both felony counts – a big embarrassment for the Santa Clara DA, who has already said he'll retry the case.

In Bay Area, Felony Charges Against Student Protesters Prompt Free Speech Concerns - Bolts German Gonzalez grew up about an hour south of Stanford University, in a dusty California farming town where the apples for Martinelli’s sparkling cider are juiced and packaged. In high... Read More

The most serious charges against pro-Palestine student protestors in the country have come from a Democratic DA in a blue state. In San Francisco & San Jose, prosecutors are using *felony conspiracy* charges to go after activists who aren't accused of any violence boltsmag.org/stanford-san...

In Bay Area, Felony Charges Against Student Protesters Prompt Free Speech Concerns Local prosecutors are seeking felony-level charges against pro-Palestine demonstrators. Even if they don’t stick, critics say the response is harsh and could chill protests.

Rarely used felony vandalism charges against Palestinian protestors.... filed by Calif. Dem prosecutors: boltsmag.org/stanford-san...

In Bay Area, Felony Charges Against Student Protesters Prompt Free Speech Concerns - Bolts German Gonzalez grew up about an hour south of Stanford University, in a dusty California farming town where the apples for Martinelli’s sparkling cider are juiced and packaged. In high... Read More

As we witness the punishment of protest across the US, a timely lesson from the Palestine US campus movement: at Stanford, student protesters were not only arrested and suspended from school, some were charged with *felonies* by the Santa Clara DA—a chilling escalation.
boltsmag.org/stanford-san...

In Bay Area, Felony Charges Against Student Protesters Prompt Free Speech Concerns - Bolts German Gonzalez grew up about an hour south of Stanford University, in a dusty California farming town where the apples for Martinelli’s sparkling cider are juiced and packaged. In high... Read More

Bay Area prosecutors are continuing to pursue felony charges against pro-Palestine activists who staged sit-ins in 2024

@psfrench.bsky.social reports how the cases represent a notable escalation in punishment against nonviolent demonstrators boltsmag.org/stanford-san...

In Bay Area, Felony Charges Against Student Protesters Prompt Free Speech Concerns - Bolts German Gonzalez grew up about an hour south of Stanford University, in a dusty California farming town where the apples for Martinelli’s sparkling cider are juiced and packaged. In high... Read More

In the Bay Area, local prosecutors have charged student protesters who participated in pro-Palestine demonstrations with felony-level charges that critics are warning are setting a dangerous template for law enforcement responses.

@psfrench.bsky.social reports on what's going on in this new piece:

Antifa used to unmask neo-Nazis, now it’s exposing ICE: ‘Predators don’t get anonymity’ Following in a long American tradition of identifying fascists, a network of leftists has set out to name and shame Trump’s immigration agents

New: Antifa unmasked a new generation of fascists in the Trump era. Now it's exposing ICE.

"Predators don’t get anonymity."

My latest for @us.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...