Life Sentence For Missouri Woman Convicted Of Assaulting Police Officer Is ‘Extremely Distressing,’ Justice Advocate Says Nicole Poston was sentenced in July for punching a police officer after she slipped free from a handcuff. Life sentences, even for nonhomicide offenses like Poston’s, are ‘a major factor’ in mass incarceration in the U.S., a criminal justice expert said. Lauren Gill
The Feds Have A Long History Of Snatching People Up. Only Now They Are Targeting Middle-Class White People Federal agents have been unfairly arresting Black and brown people for decades. Now that white Portlanders are seeing it up close and personal, they are outraged. Better late than never. Morgan Godvin, Leo Beletsky
U.S. Executes Dustin Lee Honken, The Third Federal Execution In A Week Honken, convicted of the murders of five people, died by lethal injection at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. The federal government resumed executions this week for the first time since 2003. Lauren Gill
U.S. Government Carries Out The First Execution Of A Federal Prisoner in 17 Years A late-night Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee, despite his claims of innocence and his attorneys’ belief that DNA testing could show he was wrongly convicted. Lauren Gill
Federal Prisoner Set To Be Executed Next Week Was Labeled A ‘Psychopath’ Because Of A Faulty Evaluation Tool A government psychologist who used the tool to evaluate Daniel Lewis Lee—who is scheduled to die Monday in Indiana—has since disavowed it. Without it, the trial judge has written that it’s ‘very questionable’ Lee would have been sentenced to death. Lauren Gill
Coronavirus Derails Effort To Shorten Prison Terms In Oklahoma Organizers have been collecting signatures as part of a ballot initiative known as State Question 805, which calls for the end of sentencing enhancements for people convicted of nonviolent crimes. Lauren Gill
High Cost Of Prison Diversion Programs Leaves ‘Too Many People’ Imprisoned in Alabama A survey of roughly 1,000 people found that 1 in 5 had been turned down for a diversion program because they couldn’t afford the costs of drug tests and monitoring devices. Lauren Gill
The Appeal Podcast: The Cruel Rise of ‘Drug Induced Homicide’ Prosecutions With special guest host Leo Beletsky, a professor of Law and Health Sciences at Northeastern University, and criminal justice reform advocate Morgan Godvin.
Michigan Task Force Calls On State To Significantly Reduce Mass Incarceration In County Jails A bipartisan group has recommended substantive changes to the state’s legal justice system, including cash bail reform and proposals to divert people living with mental illnesses away from incarceration. Dawn R. Wolfe
Pretrial Reform Must Go Beyond Ending Cash Bail As a society, we can’t continue to subject hundreds of thousands of people to the trauma of incarceration before they face a jury of their peers. Andy Philipson
The Appeal Podcast: Re-examining the Science of Shaken Baby Syndrome With Appeal staff reporter Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg. Adam H. Johnson
Harris County D.A. Candidate Audia Jones Says She Won’t Prosecute Sex Work The incumbent in the race, Jones’s former boss Kim Ogg, will not support a blanket refusal to prosecute sex workers, her office says. Kira Lerner
The Appeal Podcast: The Cruel Roadblocks to Getting Innocent People Out of Prison With Daniel Harawa, assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. Adam H. Johnson
L.A. Prosecutor Touts Her Mental Health Reforms, But Critics Say She’s Making The Crisis Worse Advocates and attorneys say Jackie Lacey’s rhetoric doesn’t match her actions. Raven Rakia
The Appeal Podcast: Reframing The Bronx 120 Raid With City University of New York law professor Babe Howell Adam H. Johnson
The Appeal Presents: Raided A new documentary explores the notorious ‘Bronx 120’ raid—and what it says about the evolution of policing in New York City. Simon Davis-Cohen
The Appeal Podcast: The Long, Troubled History of Gravity Knife Prosecution With Appeal contributor Jon Campbell Adam H. Johnson
The Appeal’s Favorite Stories of 2018 Our staff picks 12 stories worth reading (or rereading) before the new year.
‘I Gotta Be Strong for My Babies’ An Oklahoma woman is serving 18 months in prison after being accused of failing to protect her daughter from the girl’s dad. Roxanna Asgarian
Jeff Sessions Left Behind a Record-Breaking Gun Prosecution Machine The program was supposed to target ‘leading’ violent offenders. Today it’s sweeping up low-level, and disproportionately Black, defendants. George Joseph
How the Manhattan DA’s Use of Big Data Targeting Risks Changing the Rules of Prosecution Andrew Guthrie Ferguson
