Pregnancy-Related Arrests Spiked During Last 16 Years, Report Finds
Legal experts who spoke with The Appeal warned the criminal justice system will continue to target pregnant people in the coming years.
Meg O'Connor Sep 19, 2023
Legal experts who spoke with The Appeal warned the criminal justice system will continue to target pregnant people in the coming years.
Meg O'Connor Sep 19, 2023
Organizers with the movement say the charges are meant to “send the chilling message that any dissent to Cop City will be punished with the full power and violence of the government.”
Meg O'Connor Sep 05, 2023
A law originally set up to provide humane treatment to mentally ill people in crisis has became a terrifying dragnet for kids, with Black children under 10 greatly overrepresented.
Josh McGhee, Mindsite News Aug 16, 2023
Outdated stereotypes and crimes that never occurred create unique challenges for women seeking exoneration.
Danielle Bernstein Aug 14, 2023
Jimenez is one of more than 1,300 people who have been exonerated of crimes that never occurred. Countless others remain incarcerated, despite overwhelming evidence of their innocence.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Aug 09, 2023
Reform-minded prosecutors across the country have faced efforts to remove them from office or limit their powers.
Eric Tegethoff Aug 03, 2023
An investigation by The Appeal and the Yale Investigative Reporting Lab reveals how prosecutors use the state’s felony murder statute to imprison people who say they acted in self-defense. The majority of those convicted under the law since 2010 are Black. “I had to take the plea because they’re using this law to get people to stay locked up,” one man said.
Thomas Birmingham Jul 10, 2023
A new survey of more than 500 people incarcerated in California state prisons warns that large numbers of people have been subjected to extreme heat, dangerous cold, flooding, and wildfires.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Jun 22, 2023
At least 26 women face the threat of deportation after reporting sexual abuse by prison employees. At least 11 have already been deported.
Victoria Law Jun 02, 2023
Jenkins won’t charge the security guard who shot Banko Brown to death. That’s precisely why San Franciscans elected her in the first place.
Jerry Iannelli May 24, 2023
In Illinois alone, around 500 people are currently serving first-degree felony murder sentences for killings they did not commit themselves or intend to commit. Reform efforts must consider past injustices as well as future abuses.
Sarah Free Apr 27, 2023
A criminal-legal reporter ventures into Night Court—the cringy sitcom reboot and the real courtroom in Manhattan.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Apr 20, 2023
At least 42 people have been charged with “domestic terrorism” under the state’s wide-ranging statute. Legal experts are calling it a “sloppy” and unprecedented attack on constitutional rights to free speech and protest.
Aja Arnold Apr 03, 2023
Under state law, adult prison sentences are automatically enhanced based on prior youth adjudications. New legislation would rein in the practice and allow for reconsideration of extreme sentences.
Chelsea Moore, Christopher Blackwell Mar 27, 2023
It’s been four years since a Phoenix police officer killed Jacob Harris. Records obtained by The Appeal show officials have made inconsistent or false statements about the night police killed him. As Harris’s friends grow up behind bars, his father won’t stop until he gets justice for his son.
Meg O'Connor Mar 14, 2023
gorodenkoff / iStock by Getty Images Over-Reliance on Plea Deals is Damaging the Criminal Legal System by Nneka Ewulonu It’s easy for the average American to envision a courtroom trial. Shows like “Law and Order” inundate us with fictional depictions of trials—from the thud of a gavel to the inquisitive eyes of a jury—with an […]
Nneka Ewulonu Dec 14, 2022
Pamela Price is running a progressive campaign to change the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office in California. She’s winning. But her opponent, longtime prosecutor Terry Wiley, is trying to paint her as the next Chesa Boudin to score votes.
Akintunde Ahmad Nov 04, 2022
After a six-year investigation, the DOJ says Orange County law-enforcement unconstitutionally used jailhouse informants to elicit confessions and incriminating evidence from people for years.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, Jerry Iannelli Oct 13, 2022
Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat says the county needs more jail beds to fix the jail’s crisis. But a new ACLU report says that significant numbers of people in the jail can be released.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Oct 12, 2022
A judge allowed a Civil War-era law to go back into effect today. The law requires two to five years in prison for people who provide abortions, except to save the life of the pregnant person.
Meg O'Connor Sep 23, 2022
Roughly 30 states still have some form of HIV criminalization law or sentencing enhancement on the books. Advocates say it’s long past time for change.
Adam M. Rhodes Sep 15, 2022
If Brooke Jenkins fails to deliver results with “tough-on-crime” policies, will San Franciscans blame her, just as they did her predecessor, Chesa Boudin?
Nick Wing Aug 10, 2022
The new San Francisco DA is mixing “tough-on-crime” rhetoric with phony progressivism. Neither will solve the city’s problems.
Rachel Marshall Aug 05, 2022
The law granted embryos and fetuses the same rights as a person. Civil rights groups sought an injunction out of concern the law could criminalize people who provide or obtain abortions.
Meg O'Connor Jul 12, 2022
As Fulton County DA Fani Willis’s profile rises, the glossy coverage has largely ignored her crusade to incarcerate teachers accused of cheating on tests.
Anna Simonton Jul 06, 2022
The probe will assess whether the SVD engages in a “pattern or practice of gender-biased policing,” according to the DOJ.
Meg O'Connor Jun 30, 2022
For the wealthy backers of the Boudin recall, “progressive” prosecutors are the perfect scapegoat for what they see as threats to a system that treats them just fine.
Jerry Iannelli Jun 08, 2022
Expert says trauma from childbirth, not shaking, led to the death of Danyel Smith’s two-month-old child.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Jun 06, 2022
Prosecutors across the country could soon be tasked with enforcing abortion laws that require people to reproduce against their will.
Meg O'Connor Jun 01, 2022
Maricopa County elects a new top prosecutor this year. In the meantime, state law could let the county’s conservative county attorney prosecute abortions if Roe falls.
Meg O'Connor May 27, 2022
As politicians look to build public support for homeless encampment sweeps, they’re using tactics popularized in LA—the site of one of the nation’s most intense battles over the unhoused.
Jonny Coleman May 26, 2022
New laws imposing criminal penalties for trans healthcare follow a long legislative history of explicitly targeting queer people in the United States.
Adam M. Rhodes May 25, 2022
The racketeering charges against Young Thug, Gunna, andYSL are over-broad, over-stated and unnecessarily harsh
Jerry Iannelli May 18, 2022
Accused of faking his symptoms, Joshua Lee Smith was dragged from his hospital bed, called a “junkie,” and thrown in jail, his lawsuit says. Then, he woke up paralyzed.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg May 16, 2022
In the raucous debate over bail reform, simple facts have fallen out of sight.
Bryce Covert May 09, 2022
A Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion could force thousands of incarcerated people to carry pregnancies to term.
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg May 05, 2022
In January, a New Jersey judge said Shaken Baby Syndrome is “akin to junk science.”
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg May 04, 2022
An incarcerated writer reflects on what her “going home” story will look like when home no longer exists.
Jessica Phoenix Sylvia Apr 28, 2022
We’re celebrating 4/20 by tackling some popular myths about marijuana and the criminal legal system.
Katie Jane Fernelius Apr 20, 2022