Judge Nicole Isger denied a motion to suppress evidence at the Palo Alto Courthouse, upholding charges against a defendant of color facing drug and illegal fireworks offenses following a traffic stop. The defense had contended the evidence resulted from an unlawful detention and search, citing Fourth Amendment protections and alleging racial bias in the stop’s prolongation.
Fifty years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Gregg v. Georgia decision reinstated capital punishment, historical analysis indicates that the procedural safeguards intended to guide sentencing have not eliminated systemic disparities. Data reveals persistent inequities in capital sentencing outcomes, influenced by factors such as race, geographic location, and prosecutorial discretion.
Ernest Dykes and Curtis Ervin have initiated legal proceedings against the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, alleging systematic exclusion of Black and Jewish jurors from their capital trials in the 1990s. This litigation follows a federal judicial finding of unconstitutional prosecutorial misconduct, which resulted in the reduction of their death sentences.
The Batson v. Kentucky ruling, which prohibits prosecutors from rejecting potential jurors based on race, has not been successful in preventing racially biased jury selection, as evidenced by the Innocence Project’s research and cases of wrongful convictions and executions of Black individuals.
The Supreme Court case of Pitchford v. Cain raises concerns about the ability of federal courts to meaningfully review claims of racial discrimination in criminal trials, as the case highlights the procedural barriers of modern post-conviction review and the difficulty of applying the Batson principle in practice.
The practice of “death qualification” allows prosecutors to dismiss potential jurors who oppose the death penalty, raising concerns about fairness, racial exclusion and the integrity of capital juries.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on March 31 in the long-running Mississippi case of Pitchford v. Cain to determine whether the accused was improperly denied the right to challenge alleged racial discrimination in jury selection.
The Economist reports that the US is executing people at double the rate compared to last year, with the rise attributed to Republican political ambitions and a decrease in court oversight of the death penalty.
NEW HAMPSHIRE – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Hampshire, along with the ACLU Capital…
A teenage football player was handcuffed by police after an AI surveillance system mislabeled his bag of chips as a gun, highlighting the dangers of relying entirely on artificial intelligence for safety measures.
A Black Baltimore teenager was swarmed by police after an AI-enhanced surveillance camera falsely identified a bag of chips in his pocket as a gun, leading to a traumatic and potentially deadly incident.
A judge ruled that Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson’s decision to withdraw a resentencing motion was not politically motivated, despite defense attorneys’ claims that the move represents a retreat from efforts to confront prosecutorial misconduct in the county’s death penalty cases.
WOODLAND, CA – Judge Tom M. Dyer ruled here in a Yolo County Superior Court hearing Thursday…
OAKLAND, CA – The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) said Monday it reached settlements with Clear Capital,…
ANAHEIM, CA – Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer has been ordered to release data related to…
MONTGOMERY, AL- The Equal Justice Initiative’s report, Unreliable Verdicts: Racial Bias and Wrongful Convictions, details the ongoing…
All my life, I’ve believed that death and sickness do not discriminate. The logistics of these abstract…
Dear Supervisor Miley, We are a broad coalition of organizations working together to end the death penalty,…
Oakland, CA—DA Pamela Price announced that attorneys assigned to review the office’s death penalty cases found evidence…
By David M. Greenwald Executive Editor Oakland, CA – Local justice leaders gathered Tuesday in front of…