Tennessee

Let’s build a world in which the torture of Christa Pike — or anyone — is unthinkable.

In May, the federal government and Shelby County, Tennessee, reached a landmark settlement stopping the local prosecutor from enforcing a law that discriminates against people living with HIV.

Multiple states have created a new crime called “abortion trafficking,” which makes it illegal for adults to transport minors to get abortions without parental consent. Others are trying to restrict abortion medications or out-of-state travel.

Late last year, the U.S. Department of Justice warned the state of Tennessee that its “aggravated prostitution” statute—which makes it a felony to engage in sex work while HIV positive—violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Activists hope the measure shows how the government can use the ADA to fight ableism around the nation.

On Election Day, voters in Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont will decide whether to close loopholes in their state constitutions allowing the forced labor of incarcerated people.

Leaving prison often hinges on completing rehabilitative programming. The pandemic caused many of these required courses to be put on hold.

Sterling Higgins died in a Tennessee jail in 2019 after officers pinned him to the floor. Two new medical experts’ reports describe the incident as homicide.

Sterling Higgins called 911 in March 2019 seeking help during a mental health crisis. Police took him to Obion County Jail, where he died after officers pinned him to a floor.

Attorneys say the prosecution’s theory of the murder case was ‘concocted out of whole cloth’ and based on ‘outdated racial stereotyping.’

A federal lawsuit alleges lack of due process in a rural Tennessee county, and reform advocates say its jail is hardly an outlier.

Across the country, the death penalty is in steep decline. But in September, the state’s attorney general sought execution dates for nine men, and its Supreme Court set dates for two of them.

The legislation also makes it illegal for many ex-offenders to be alone with their own children.

Vindication and compensation remain elusive for Tennessee’s wrongly convicted, in part because of the state’s parole board.

The Department of Justice is leaving Shelby County, but discrimination against Black children in court continues, a federal monitor says.

The evening of August 6th, 2004, 16-year old Cyntoia Brown shot and killed Johnny Allen, a 43-year-old Nashville resident who picked her up for sex. It was an act of self defense, she explained to police later; after Allen took her to his house, he showed Cyntoia multiple guns, including shotguns and rifles. Later in bed, as she described in court, he grabbed her violently by the genitals, his demeanor became threatening and, fearing for her life, she took a gun out of her purse and shot him.

State law makes it easier to throw Brown away than consider traumas youth face and offer them hope of rehabilitation.

“Kiss your boyfriend goodbye.”

Do these so-called “john schools” actually hurt women more than help them?

The price of shoplifting at Wal-Mart isn’t always low.

The Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee ruled recently that District Attorney General Robert Carter’s office improperly use a peremptory challenge during jury selection to prevent a black woman from serving on a jury. As a result, the court threw out Collins’ conviction and sentence.