Suffolk County D.A. Rachael Rollins’s Office is Still Prosecuting Cases She Pledged to Drop
Boston’s top prosecutor says big changes are in the works; advocates plan to keep pushing.
New York Agency Declines to Help Trans Woman Allegedly Harassed by Law Enforcement
She is suing the Division of Human Rights for saying it’s not authorized to investigate her complaint.
Louisiana Judge Threatens To Appoint Every Eligible Lawyer To Death Penalty Case
After the state cut funds for capital defense, there’s a growing wait list of people in jail without a lawyer.
Lawsuit: Manhattan D.A.’s Office Tracks Cops With ‘Credibility’ Problems, But Refuses To Release Its List
The office has criticized the NYPD for shielding officers’ misconduct histories, but it won’t share its own information on police dishonesty.
In New York, Most Parolees Can Now Vote—But Many County Websites Say They Can’t
As Thursday’s election approaches, confusion reigns.
Here Are the Criminal Justice Issues Andrew Cuomo and Cynthia Nixon Should Debate
From policing to parole, this election could be pivotal for reform.
More Than A Month After Anti-ICE Protests, Detained NYC Immigrants Still Denied In-Person Hearings
Their attorneys say the new video-teleconferencing policy is exacerbating backlogs and prolonging detention.
ICE Limits Access To Lawyers For NYC Immigrants In Detention, Citing Protests
Advocates decry court’s shift to using teleconferencing for hearings.
Queens DA releases final report on massage worker’s death, calling sex work ‘degrading and humiliating’
As anticipated, district attorney finds no misconduct in raid that led to Yang Song’s fatal fall.
New Evidence in the Death of a Queens Massage Worker
Surveillance video sheds some light on the police raid that killed Yang Song last year while, advocates say, the raids continue.
NYC Mayor Remains Intent on Restricting Legal Help for Immigrants with Felony Convictions
Legal defense for immigrants has long been central to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s anti-Trump messaging. “We will use all the tools at our disposal to stand up for our people,” he assured immigrant New Yorkers during a high-profile speech at Cooper Union immediately following the 2016 election. His tone was similar during […]
NYC Transgender Activist Says She Was Criminalized For Defending Herself Against Abuser
Her former partner assaulted her in her home. When the police arrived, she was arrested and he walked free.
A National Campaign to Crack Down on Massage Businesses May Harm the Women it Wants to Help
Polaris, a Washington, D.C.-based non-governmental organization best known for operating the National Human Trafficking Hotline, says it has located a new front in the fight against human trafficking: what it describes as “illicit massage businesses,” or IMBs. The nonprofit, which brought in $10 million in 2016 (of which $2.1 million is government funding, according to IRS […]
Los Angeles Public Defender’s Office Has A New Interim Leader — And She’s Never Represented Indigent Clients
On Jan. 23, public defenders in Los Angeles County got a new interim boss — over their own objections. For one thing, many have argued, Nicole Davis Tinkham, the appointee, comes from the Office of the County Counsel, where she defended the Board of Supervisors (the same governing body that appointed her), and the Sheriff’s Department, a frequent foe of their clients.
NYC Agency Uses Brooklyn Gang Raid To Encourage Evictions Of Entire Families From Public Housing
Early on the morning of January 19, the New York Police Department and local and federal partners raided the Sheepshead/Nostrand Houses, a large public housing complex in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, arresting 13 alleged members of the “Towaz Boyz gang.” Unnamed law enforcement authorities described the scene to the Daily Newsas a “New Jack City-style sales operation” — a reference […]
Family, Former Attorney of Queens Woman Who Fell to Her Death in Vice Sting Say She Was Sexually Assaulted, Pressured to Become an Informant
Yang Song fell four stories onto a sidewalk in Flushing, Queens on the night of November 25th. An officer with the New York City Police Department accompanied her, unconscious, to New York Presbyterian Hospital where doctors placed her on a respirator. They worked for hours: the 35 units of blood they transfused did not take, given the severity of her injuries from the thirty foot fall.
After Deadly Vice Sting, Advocates Say End to Prostitution Arrests Is Long Overdue
A 38-year-old woman, Yang Song of Queens, New York, died at New York Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday, one day after falling three stories from an apartment window in nearby Flushing. Little has been reported about Song beyond the New York Police Department’s assertion that she was a sex worker, and fell while officers from the Queens […]