In a surprise move, VA Gov. Abigail Spanberger vetoed a bill that would have stopped prosecutors from asking people to waive their 4th Amendment rights against unreasonable searches & seizures in plea deals. This commonly happens in some counties.
More here:
boltsmag.org/virginia-fou...
Yesterday New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a trio of bills protecting the state's immigrants.
New Jersey is now the 10th state (and 4th in the past year) to pass legislation outlawing local law enforcement partnerships with ICE via the 287(g) program.
boltsmag.org/new-jersey-i...
The day before Alabama had been scheduled to suffocate him, I sat down with Sonny Burton inside Holman Correctional Facility, where death row is housed. Take a moment to read and share what he had to say. Full story: www.treadbylee.com/p/sonny
Willie Cunningham was detained at York County Prison when he began to experience excruciating abdominal pain. A nurse told him he had heartburn. It was appendicitis. “I believed in these people,” he told me. “I didn’t know I was dying.”
theappeal.org/york-county-...
this local election i posted about here is happening in 48 hours.
this one is less interesting for what the outcome will be (it's a Trump +50 district) than the fascinating rhetoric of the campaign (see below), but i'm still very interested in seeing how it ends up.
Before Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders announced a megaprison a mile from his house, Colt Shelby hadn’t voted in 15 years.
Now he says he won't miss another election.
Ahead of Tuesday's special election, I took a look at how incarceration has become the race's biggest issue in a deeply red district.
In Jan, the Iowa Supreme Court said prosecutors could no longer make defendants pay court costs in exchange for dismissals.
Now prosecutors are backing legislation to bring back that practice & it could leave poor Iowans with debt that could haunt them for decades.
boltsmag.org/iowa-court-f...
@ethanscorey.bsky.social and I have published a database of congressmembers who received donations from ICE profiteers GEO Group, CoreCivic, and Management and Training Corporation. Look up your reps at @inthesetimes.com + @theappeal.org. inthesetimes.com/article/ice-....
He will be doing whatever he can to be in his boys' lives!
That's wild! Crazy how we can find these things out
The sweet little rescue dog in question :
Just got a notification via doggie DNA testing that my sweet little rescue dog Sandy — adopted last year after he was displaced by the LA wildfires — is a FATHER to two boys: DaVinci and Hank. I may never recover.
My latest for @boltsmag.org examines efforts to pass the MA Survivors Act, allowing abuse survivors to petition for resentencing (& release) or avoid lengthy/life prison sentences: boltsmag.org/massachusett...
In one of his final moves before leaving office today, NJ Gov. Phil Murphy vetoed bills aimed at protecting immigrants out of fear it would invite legal challenges from the Trump admin.
Immigrant advocates decried the decision: "ICE is already here, kidnapping people."
boltsmag.org/new-jersey-g...
The ruling allows Florida to continue with the lowest standard for the death penalty in the nation, requiring just 8 out of 12 jurors to agree on death.
The Massey Commission was established after Sonya Massey was killed by a sheriff's deputy in her own home. I followed along for 9 months as its members tried to enact real policing & mental health reforms – & grappled w/ the limits of these commissions to effect change: boltsmag.org/sonya-massey...
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Why does my dog look like he’s about to deliver a lecture on 17th century literature lol
NC prison officials say “shifting economic conditions” forced them to raise their markup on basic goods like food, drinks, batteries to run radios, etc
Phill Smith, who’s incarcerated there, reports on the impact of the price hike and how prisons squeeze revenue from those who can least afford it
After Biden commuted the sentences of 37 men on federal death row last year, the Trump administration is retaliating by sending them to the supermax. Prisoners are locked in cells smaller than a parking space 22-24 hours a day.
One prisoner told me he fears he won't make it out alive.
My latest:
Over 20 years ago, Robert Roberson was convicted based on the debunked Shaken Baby Syndrome hypothesis and sentenced to death. Now, the lead detective on his case, Brian Wharton, is fighting to save his life. New for @thenation.com. www.thenation.com/article/soci...
BREAKING: Tremane Wood, who was moments away from being executed for a killing his brother admitted to committing, received a last minute clemency grant from Gov. Kevin Stitt www.huffpost.com/entry/treman...
Incoming NJ governor Mikie Sherrill hasn't said whether she'll uphold a state policy limiting law enforcement cooperation w/ ICE. Advocates say lawmakers must pass legislation to preserve & expand protections for NJ's 2.2 million immigrants before she takes office.
boltsmag.org/immigration-...
"At 5:50, correctional officers opened the curtains of the death chamber to begin the state’s grim orchestration. Before those curtains would close about 37 minutes later, Boyd would gasp for air inside the gas mask more than 225 times."
www.treadbylee.com/p/after-just...
Justice Sotomayor with a graphic dissent as the Supreme Court allows Alabama to move forward with the execution of Anthony Boyd by lethal gas:
This evening, I will serve as a witness to the nitrogen gas execution of Anthony Boyd, should it move forward. Take a moment to read this story about his legacy on death row. If the state executes Boyd, an eyewitness account will be added to this piece. www.treadbylee.com/p/hope-in-th...
Alabama plans to execute Boyd with nitrogen gas tomorrow, an experimental method that involves suffocating prisoners to death. “There’s nothing you can do to prepare for something like that,” Boyd told me. “You can’t prepare a person for drowning.”
For more:
boltsmag.org/anthony-boyd...
In the years since, Boyd has challenged his conviction in the courts but no court has granted him a hearing to present evidence his post conviction lawyers have uncovered they say proves Boyd's innocence.
At the end of the three day trial, Boyd was sentenced to death by a vote of 10–2. Alabama and Florida are the only two states in the country that can send someone to death row even when all jurors don’t agree.