NORTH KOREA - Freed Student in Coma

"U.S. college student freed from North Korea after falling into extended coma" PBS NewsHour 6/13/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old American college student, has been medically evacuated under desperate circumstances after being detained in North Korea.  North Korean authorities arrested Otto, who is now comatose, almost 18 months ago during a trip to the reclusive nation and sentenced him to 15 years of hard labor for taking a poster.  Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Now to the release of Otto Warmbier from captivity in North Korea.

The American college student was arrested almost 18 months ago during a trip to the reclusive nation, and he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

This morning came word suddenly that the United States had secured his release, but under apparently desperate circumstances.  Warmbier is comatose, and has been for a year.  An American delegation in Pyongyang petitioned for his immediate release yesterday.

INSIDE JOB - NSA Espionage Suspect Flight Risk

"NSA contractor suspected of espionage is deemed a flight risk" PBS NewsHour 10/21/2016

REF:  The Shadow Brokers (with ransom note)

AGAIN - Snowden is a TRAITOR and he knows it, which is why he fled.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The National Security Agency contractor accused of mishandling massive amounts of classified data has been deemed a flight risk.  In August, Harold Martin was arrested at his home in Maryland, where the equivalent of half a billion pages of documents and electronic data was found, some allegedly taken from NSA headquarters.  William Brangham speaks with Matt Apuzzo of The New York Times for more.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  A judge ruled today that a Maryland man accused of stealing massive amounts of information from the National Security Agency was a flight risk and will remain in federal custody.

William Brangham has the story.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM (NewsHour):  This past August, Harold Martin III was arrested at his home in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C.  In his house, investigators discovered the equivalent of half-a-billion pages of documents and electronic data, some allegedly taken from the NSA's headquarters at nearby Fort Meade.

Among the documents were ones marked top-secret and also tools used by the NSA to hack into the computer networks of foreign governments.

Joining me now for more on this case is Matt Apuzzo, who's been covering this story for The New York Times.

Matt Apuzzo, welcome.

I wonder if you would just start off by laying out the case against this gentleman, and what is his defense?

MATT APUZZO, The New York Times:  Well, I mean, what is fascinating is there is the case that's been brought.

And the case that's been brought, as you said, is; hey, this guy had terabytes, billions of pages of documents in his house, in his shed, in the back seat of his car, in the trunk of his car, and, obviously, you're not supposed to do that.  So, there is that case.

But then there is this other case that's kind of looming over all this, and the question is, is he the guy who, not too long ago, facilitated the release of NSA documents, basically for ransom, put them up for sale online?  These were hacking tools, the way the government, the United States government, hacks into other countries and businesses and whatnot?

And so that's really what's going on here, is, there's, OK, he mishandled classified information.  He has basically admitted that.  But is he the guy, is he part of some network that's putting information up for sale?

POLICING - Witnesses to Brutality, the Need Better Videos

"Teaching citizens how to shoot better video when they witness brutality" PBS NewsHour 4/10/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Video that captures violent abuse by police or a government can send shockwaves through a society, but even if it goes viral, it may not stand up in a courtroom as evidence.  Hari Sreenivasan reports on how one organization is training citizens around the world to shoot better video when they witness crime, while protecting themselves from becoming targets.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  This week has brought questions about police violence front and center once again, and demonstrated the power of what’s captured on video, frequently by citizens — the latest case, an arrest in San Bernardino, California, that appeared to involve excessive force.

Today, 10 deputies were placed on paid leave following the release of news video showing the violent arrest of a man who fled on horseback.  It comes nearly a week after Walter Scott was shot in the back and killed by a police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina.  His funeral is this weekend.

Hari Sreenivasan has a report on efforts to use video to document violence abroad and in the U.S.

And a warning:  It contains images that are disturbing, including the shooting of Walter Scott.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  Everyone is shooting everything with camera phones.  The shooting of Walter Scott proves that sometimes video can be used as evidence against police wrongdoing.

KELLY MATHESON, Senior Attorney and Program Manager, WITNESS:  I think that cameras in everyone’s hands means that there will be more transparency and more accountability.  The camera is the new DNA technology.

The DNA is only available to specialists.  It’s only available to scientists.  The camera is available to everyone worldwide.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  The Video as Evidence program of WITNESS, an organization founded by musician and humanitarian activist Peter Gabriel, trains citizens around the world to safely and effectively document abuse, so that video is as effective in the courtroom as it is on the Web.

How a bystander’s video revealed the truth about a police shooting in South Carolina

PRESIDENTIAL PARDONS - New Trend?

"Prolific Pardoner?  Obama Grants Clemency to 22 Prisoners This Week, But Has Denied Thousands" by Annie Waldman, ProPublica 4/1/2015

Excerpt

President Obama commuted the sentences of 22 people on Tuesday, doubling the number of commutations he has granted during his administration in just one day.  The decision follows a push from the Justice Department last year to grant clemency to nonviolent prisoners, many of whom had been sent to prison under the harsh sentencing laws and aggressive anti-crime policies that were originally implemented during the 1980s and 1990s.

Mark Osler, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law and the founder of the nation’s first law school clinic on federal commutations, said that the President’s action is not only historic, but also represents a commitment.  “This is intended to be a message of hope,” Osler told ProPublica.  “There are thousands of Americans who are going to read this and say that’s like my case or my father’s case.  Now, the President has to follow through and take that seriously.”

In April 2014, the Justice Department announced a new initiative to fast-track clemency petitions for prisoners who, under today’s sentencing laws, would have received a substantially lower sentence for the same offense.  To speed up the application process, the Justice Department introduced new criteria to help prioritize the petitions, stating that the agency would prioritize non-violent offenders who had served more than 10 years of their sentences.

Alongside the announcement of the new initiative came the removal of the Justice Department’s Pardon Attorney, Ronald Rodgers. In 2012, ProPublica and the Washington Post revealed that Rodgers had failed to disclose critical information in recommending that the White House deny the petition of Clarence Aaron, who was sentenced to three life terms for minor involvement in a drug deal.

Following our reporting, Obama granted Aaron clemency, after he spent two decades in prison.

Like Aaron, all of the individuals who were granted clemency this week were serving sentences longer than 10 years for non-violent drug crimes.  The White House reported that President Obama penned letters to each of them.

“Thousands of individuals have applied for commutation, and only a fraction of these applications are approved,” the President wrote in one letter to Terry Andre Barnes, who was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison in 2005 for conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

“I am granting your application because you have demonstrated the potential to turn your life around.  Now it is up to you to make the most of this opportunity.”

Margaret Love, who served as U.S. Pardon Attorney for the Justice Department from 1990 to 1997 and now represents petitioners, recognizes the need for further action.  “I know that the President is committed to redressing some of the wrongs of federal sentencing,” she said, “but I think he is going to need to put a system in place for handling hundreds as opposed to dozens of cases that deserve a sentence reduction.”

RACE & JUSTICE - Deeply Rooted Biases and Law Enforcement

"Oakland tries to address how deeply rooted biases affect law enforcement" PBS NewsHour 12/16/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Now, race and justice in America.

Tonight, we look at efforts in Oakland, California, to address bias where it exists in law enforcement.

Special correspondent Jackie Judd has the story.

PROTESTER:  If I can’t breathe!

PROTESTERS:  You can’t breathe!

JACKIE JUDD (NewsHour):  The racial turmoil in the U.S. stemming from encounters between police and black men strikes a chord with Jennifer Eberhardt.  The social psychologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, has spent her career exploring racial bias and how that plays out in the criminal justice system.

Still, it came as a shock to her how embedded biases can be, biases we’re not even aware of.

JENNIFER EBERHARDT, Stanford University:  I’m on an airplane with my son.  And he looks up and he sees a black man, and he says, “Hey, that guy looks like daddy.”

And I look at the guy, he doesn’t look anything like my husband, and I notice he’s the only black guy on the plane.  And he says, “I hope he doesn’t rob the plane.”

And I said, “Well, why would you say that?”

And he looked at me and he said, “I don’t know why I said that.”

And so we’re living with such severe racial stratification that even a 5-year-old can tell us what’s supposed to happen next.

RACE AND JUSTICE - Cooling Down Confrontations

"How police can cool down confrontations before they turn deadly" PBS NewsHour 12/11/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Protesters continue to take to the streets around the country following the fatal police shootings in Ferguson, Missouri, and Cleveland, as well as the death of Eric Garner in New York City.

Earlier this week on “NewsHour,” we had a discussion with a panel of young protesters.  Tonight, we hear from a panel of law enforcement experts.

I spoke earlier this week with three people who have thought a lot about the subjects of policing, violence and race.  Dean Esserman is the chief of police in New Haven, Connecticut.  David Klinger is a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri.  He’s also a former Los Angeles police officer.  And Ronald Hampton, a former 23-year community relations officer in Washington, D.C.

We welcome you all to the “NewsHour.”

Chief Esserman, let me begin with you. Let’s talk first about how police officers evaluate a threat. How — how — is there a universal training that officers learn on how to do that?

DEAN ESSERMAN, Police Chief, New Haven, Connecticut:  We’re trained in similar ways, different priorities.

But police officers are trained to go and to serve and to protect.  And, sometimes that means using force, and sometimes that means slowing down the tempo and using what we know how to use best, which is a conversation.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  And, Professor Klinger, as someone, as we just said, as a former police officer, how do you strike that balance between a time to — to be prepared to use force it, if necessary, and on the other hand it’s a time to calm things down?

DAVID KLINGER, University of Missouri-Saint Louis:  Well, I think you’re always prepared to use force, and that’s the key, is you have to understand that these things can escalate quickly.

But, as the chief indicated, our best tactic is to create some time and talk to people.  The vast majority of the time, we’re going to be able to talk people into jail.  The vast majority of time, when people are upset, we can calm them down, but there’s times and places where we can’t.  And if it doesn’t get to that point, the person remains agitated and a threat emerges, either to an officer or to a civilian, then the police have to move for a forceful action.

Unfortunately, sometimes, the first moment an officer arrives on scene, that’s a moment where there’s a threat, and the officer has to take physical force as the first option, essentially.

FERGUSON - Grand Jury Ruling, Timse 3

When is law enforcement and our justice system going to comprehend that killing an UNARMED person, for any reason, is wrong.  And using the 'fearing for my life' is just an excuse NOT justification.

"Understanding the grand jury ruling on Michael Brown’s death" PBS NewsHour 11/24/2014

Excerpt

ROBERT MCCULLOCH, St. Louis County Prosecutor:  …Mr. Brown’s movements.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  That’s Robert McCulloch, the prosecutor in St. Louis County, Missouri, reporting that what he describes as an accurate and tragic story but that ends in no probable cause being found in order to — to indict Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot, in August, Michael Brown, the unarmed teenager.  It’s created, as you can see, lots of unrest in Ferguson for months.

He told us that there were 25 days of grand jury meetings, 70 hours of testimony, 60 witnesses, including three different medical examiners, hundreds of photos and that they basically concluded that a lot of the things that we had heard, a lot of the eyewitnesses did not — were not consistent with the stories that they found, the evidence they say they have now found, that the physical evidence basically refuted a lot of the eyewitness evidence, and that, as a result tonight, there will be no indictment for that Ferguson police officer, as you can also have been able to see, there had already been some, at least so far, peaceful protests.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  That’s right.  I think it’s fair to say, Gwen, what we’re listening to now is the prosecutor recount what different witnesses said.  But he — what you just summed up is — is what was important tonight.  There is no indictment of Officer Darren Wilson.

They are saying there’s no probable cause.  He was trying to explain it was an exhaustive process.  He talked about wit — eyewitnesses, but in the end, he said, it’s the evidence that — that mattered the most.

We do have three guests we want to bring in to talk about what we’ve just heard.

They are Roger Goldman.  He’s a professor at Saint Louis University School of Law.  Gil Alba, he’s a former New York Police Department detective.  He currently runs a private investigation firm.  And Rev. Willis Johnson.  He’s a pastor at Wellspring Church in Ferguson.

"Ferguson reeling from the effects of grand jury decision" PBS NewsHour 11/25/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The decision that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson would not be charged by a grand jury for the shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown sparked riots and protests in Ferguson and major cities last night.  Gwen Ifill reports on the reactions by protesters and law enforcement after the decision was announced.

"What’s next for the city of Ferguson?" PBS NewsHour 11/25/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Just a day after the grand jury announced not to indict police officer Darren Wilson, the city of Ferguson remains tense.  Gwen Ifill speaks with Christina Swarns, Litigation Director for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Susan McGraw of St. Louis University, on the grand jury’s role in the legal system and what’s next for the city of Ferguson.

INJUSTICE - Bries History of 'Killer Cops'

"Darren Wilson Wasn’t the First:  A Short History of Killer Cops Let Off the Hook" by Flint Taylor, In These Times 11/24/2014

The Ferguson grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for the killing of African-American teenager Michael Brown is heartless but unsurprising.  But it is important to place the case in context with the history of police violence investigations and prosecutions in high profile cases—and the systemic and racist police brutality that continues to plague the nation.  In doing so, there are lessons for the movement for justice in the Michael Brown case, as well as for those who are engaged in the broader struggle against law enforcement violence.

What follows, then, is a brief history of similar high profile cases where public outrage compelled the justice system to confront acts of racially motivated police violence—with, to say the least, less than satisfactory results.

Chicago

Over the past 45 years, Chicago has been a prime example of official indifference and cover-up when it comes to prosecuting the police for wanton brutality and torture.

On December 4, 1969, Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were slain in a police raid that implicated the Cook County State’s Attorney and the FBI’s Cointelpro program.  A public outcry led to a Federal Civil Rights investigation.  Despite finding that the raiding police fired more than 90 shots to one by the Panthers, the Grand Jury in 1970 did not indict, but rather issued a report that equally blamed the police perpetrators and the Panther victims.

Outrage at this decision led to the appointment of a Special Prosecutor who, in the face of extreme official resistance, obtained an indictment against the police and the State’s Attorneys who planned and executed the raid—not for murder and attempted murder, but rather for obstruction of justice.

The case came to trial in front of a politically connected judge who dismissed the case without even requiring that the charged officials put on a defense.  Again, the outrage, particularly in the African-American community was so extreme that the chief prosecutor, Edward V. Hanrahan, was voted out of office a week after the verdict was rendered in 1972.

The Jon Burge police torture scandal provides another stark example.  Evidence that had been unearthed over the years demonstrated that a crew of predominately white Chicago police detectives, led by Jon Burge, tortured at least 120 African-American men from 1972 to 1991.

Cook County State’s Attorney Richard M. Daley was tendered powerful evidence of this torture as early as 1982, but did not investigate or prosecute Burge and his men.  Daley’s office continued to use confessions tortured from the victims to send scores of them to prison—10 of whom went to death row, though they were later saved by a death penalty moratorium in 2000 and by a grant of clemency in 2003 by then-Governor George Ryan—during the next seven years.

In 1989, the local U.S. Attorneys’ office declined to prosecute, as did the Department of Justice in 1996 and Cook County State’s Attorney Richard Devine for the five years directly thereafter.  In 2001, due to continuing public pressure, a politically connected Special Prosecutor was appointed to investigate the torture.  But after a four year, $7 million investigation, he too refused to indict, instead issuing what is widely considered to be a whitewash report that absolved Daley, Devine, and numerous high Chicago police officials.

Finally, in 2008 the U.S. Attorney indicted Burge for perjury and obstruction of justice, and he was convicted in 2010, and sentenced to 4½ years in prison.  However, the U.S. Attorney has subsequently declined to prosecute Burge’s confederates for similar offenses.

New Orleans

Chicago is by no means an isolated example of how difficult it is to obtain justice for wanton police violence through the judicial system.  In New Orleans, a crew of white detectives responded to the killing of a white police officer in 1980 by terrorizing the black community of Algiers, killing four innocent people and torturing numerous others by “booking and bagging” them, beating suspects with telephone books and suffocating them with bags over their heads.

Seven officers were indicted by the Department of Justice for civil rights violations arising from the torture of one of the victims and three were convicted.  No officers were charged for the four killings or for the other acts of torture.

In 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, an NOPD officer fatally shot an unarmed black man named Henry Glover, then several of his fellow officers burned his body to cover-up their crime.  NOPD officers also shot and killed two unarmed black men on the Danziger Bridge.

After state authorities botched their investigation, the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department indicted the officers involved in the two cases and obtained convictions of some of the main police actors.  However, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned the verdict in the Glover case, and the trial judge, citing government misconduct, took the extraordinary step of granting the convicted officers a new trial in the Danziger case.

New York

In 1997, an NYPD officer sexually assaulted a Haitian-American man named Abner Louima in a precinct station bathroom by shoving a broken broomstick up his rectum.  Louima’s attacker was subsequently charged with federal civil rights violations, while three of his police accomplices were charged with covering up the crimes.

After Louima’s attacker pleaded guilty, his accomplices were convicted, but the Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned their convictions on the grounds that the lawyers who represented the officers had a conflict of interest.  After they were convicted a second time, the Appeals Court again overturned their convictions—this time on the basis that there was insufficient evidence of intent.

In 1999, four officers from the NYPD’s Street Crimes Unit fired 41 shots at Amadou Diallo, a Guinean immigrant who was reaching for his wallet, hitting him 19 times.  The officers were indicted for second degree murder and the case was moved to upstate New York, where a jury acquitted the officers.

In July of this year, NYPD officers arrested an African-American man named Eric Garner, allegedly for selling untaxed cigarettes.  They put a prohibited chokehold on him, forced him to the ground face first with his hands behind his back, and shoved his face into the pavement, where he died a few minutes later of a heart attack.  The deadly assault, which was captured on videotape, is now under investigation by a Special Grand Jury empaneled by the District Attorney’s Office.

Los Angeles

Among the most notorious cases was the brutal 1991 beating of Rodney King by five LAPD officers.  A videotape captured most of the brutality and also showed several other officers standing by and doing nothing to stop the pummeling of a defenseless black man.

Four officers were charged at the state level with assault with a deadly weapon and use of excessive force.  The trial was moved to a predominantly white suburban county, and three of the officers were acquitted of all charges, while the fourth was acquitted of assault with a deadly weapon and other lesser charges.  But the jury failed to reach a verdict on his use of excessive force.

After an angry uprising in the Africa- American community of Los Angeles that left 53 dead and around 2,000 injured, the U.S. Justice Department indicted the four officers, and a federal jury convicted two of them, while acquitting the other two.

This past August, LAPD officers fatally shot an unarmed mentally ill African-American man named Ezell Ford, who witnesses said was shot in the back while lying on the ground.  Despite massive protests, there has been no grand jury investigation to date, the autopsy report is yet to be released, and the LAPD has not completed its investigation.

Oakland

In Oakland, California in the late 1990s, a unit of police officers dubbed the “Rough Riders” systematically beat, framed and planted narcotics on African Americans whom they claimed were dealing drugs.  Four of the “Riders” were indicted by the District Attorney’s Office, and the trial was moved to a suburban county.  The ringleader fled the country, and was tried in absentia.

After a year-long trial before a bitterly divided jury on which there were no blacks, the officers were acquitted of eight charges, and the jury was hung on the remaining 27 counts.  At the urging of then-Mayor Jerry Brown, the officers were not re-tried.

Also in Oakland, in the early morning hours of New Years Day, 2009, a BART officer shot and killed a young black man named Oscar Grant, who was lying face down, unarmed, in a busy transit station.  The shooting was videotaped, and led to militant protests in Oakland.

Another jury with no black members rejected the charge of murder and instead found the officer guilty of involuntary manslaughter.  As a result, Oscar Grant’s killer spent less than a year behind bars.  The Department of Justice subsequently opened a civil rights investigation, but no charges were brought.

Milwaukee

From 2007-2012 in Milwaukee, a unit of white police officers, spurred on by the Department’s CompStat program of aggressive policing, stopped and illegally body cavity searched more than 70 African-American men whom they claimed to be investigating for drug dealing.  In conducting these searches, most commonly performed on the street, the searching officer reached inside the men’s underwear, and probed their anuses and genitals.

After this highly illegal practice came to light, the unit’s ringleader, Michael Vagnini, was indicted by the Milwaukee County District Attorney on numerous counts of sexual assault, illegal searches, and official misconduct, while three of the other unit officers were also charged for participating in two of the searches.  The unit’s sergeant and several other members of the unit, all of whom were present for many of the searches, were not charged.

The charged officers were permitted to plead guilty to the lesser included offenses of official misconduct and illegal strip searches, with Vagnini receiving a 36-month sentence while the other three received sentences that totaled, collectively, less than a month in jail.  By pleading guilty, they also received promises that they would not be charged with federal civil rights violations.

Pattern and Practice Investigations

These high profile cases represent only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cases where racist police violence has not been subjected to equal justice under the law.

Recently, the Justice Department declined to prosecute Little Rock, Arkansas, officers who shot and killed Eugene Ellison, an elderly African American man who was walking out of his home with a cane in his hand, while there have been documented reports of unarmed black men recently being shot down by the police in Chicago; Houston; San Antonio; Beaver Creek, Ohio; and Sarasota, Florida.

In 1994, the United States Congress, recognizing that police misconduct and violence was systemic in many parts of the country, passed 42 U.S. Code Section 14141, which empowered the Justice Department to file suit against police departments alleging patterns and practices of unconstitutional conduct, and to obtain wide ranging court orders, consent decrees, and independent monitors in order to implement reforms to those practices.

Although understaffed, the Pattern and Practice Unit of the Justice Department has attacked systemic and discriminatory deficiencies in police hiring, supervision, and monitoring in numerous police departments over the past 20 years.   A particularly egregious act or series of acts of police violence often prompts the Unit to initiate an investigation, and its lawyers have obtained consent decrees or court orders in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Steubenville, Ohio, New Orleans, Puerto Rico, Oakland, and Miami.

Last month, lawyers handling the Little Rock cases requested that the DOJ do a pattern and investigation of the LRPD, and the Unit is reportedly now investigating the practices of the Ferguson Police Department.  While these investigations are not a panacea, they offer a mechanism for exposing and reforming blatantly unconstitutional police practices, and have also demonstrated how pervasive the problem systemic police violence continues to be.

In light of this history, the pre-ordained failure of a biased local prosecutor to obtain an indictment against Darren Wilson should not surprise us.  But the movement for justice for Michael Brown has brought widespread attention to the nationwide problem of systemic and racist police violence and highlighted the movement that has come together to battle against it.

Just two weeks ago, the Brown case, along with the Burge torture cases, was presented to the United Nations Committee Against Torture in Geneva.  The movement should now turn its attention to the Department of Justice, demanding a federal civil rights indictment against Wilson a full scale pattern and practice investigation of the Ferguson Police Department, and, more broadly, an end to systemic and racist police violence.

As the history of the battle against racist police violence so pointedly teaches, the public outcry and agitation must continue not only in Ferguson but across the nation.  Because as Frederick Douglas rightly stated many years ago, power concedes nothing without a demand.

JUSTICE - Exonerated But Not Free

"Exonerated but not free:  What do we owe the wrongfully convicted?" PBS NewsHour 11/9/2014

Excerpt

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  On any given afternoon in Braddock Pennsylvania on the outskirts of Pittsburgh you’ll find Drew Whitley in Stambolis Meat Shop helping to clean up.  It’s about all he can do now.  He takes valium for an anxiety that is very real for him.

What’s your life been like?

DREW WHITLEY:  Some days I wake up with nightmares from the night before.  You know I st ill have nightmares that I’m locked up.  If they locked you up for getting life without parole for somethin’ you– for something they know you didn’t do, ain’t no tellin’ what they might do, far as I’m concerned.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  So you are still living in fear of the justice system?

DREW WHITLEY:  Oh, yes.  I think I’ll be that way for the rest of my life.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  Whitley’s fear and anxiety are based on fact.  In 1989, Whitley, who had two previous convictions for theft and receiving stolen property, was convicted in the high profile murder of Noreen Malloy, a 22-year-old McDonald’s manager in Duquesne, Pennsylvania, another town near Pittsburgh.  Although he always maintained his innocence.

DREW WHITLEY:  I’m hoping the judge will grant the DNA test so the whole city of Pittsburgh can see that they got another innocent man.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  He served 18 years in prison before DNA testing proved that hairs found in the killer’s ski mask did not belong to him.  In 2006, he was set free.

Eight years later, Drew Whitley’s exonerated life is anything but easy.  He gets a disability check for $700 a month.  Just last year at age 58 he moved out of his mother’s home into a tiny two room apartment which costs him nearly half his check.

JUSTICE - Rehabilitation as a Way to Lower Recidivism

Gee... What a novel idea.... DUH.

"Debating criminal justice reforms to improve rehabilitation and lower recidivism" PBS NewsHour 8/7/2014

Excerpt

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  Across the U.S., as inmate populations keep growing, calls to address prison crowding, conditions and other problems continue to be heard.

Just this week, the Justice Department issued a scathing report on abuse of teenage inmates at New York’s Riker’s Island.  It spoke of a — quote — “culture of violence that encouraged beatings and excessive use of solitary confinement.”

In California, state officials are under federal court orders aimed at reducing severe overcrowding of prisons.  And U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is pushing to shorten prison terms for many nonviolent offenders.

On the NewsHour recently, he cited a fundamental unfairness in drug sentencing.

ERIC HOLDER, Attorney General:  If you are basing a sentence on something other than the conduct of the person who was involved, and the person’s record, if you’re looking, for instance, at factors of what educational level the person has received, what neighborhood the person comes from…

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  Which, to be clear, some states are doing already.

ERIC HOLDER:  They are, right.  And using that as a predictor, though, of what — how likely this person, this individual, is going to be a recidivist, I’m not at all certain that I’m comfortable with that.

JEFFREY BROWN:  The concerns have sparked bipartisan efforts.

In the Senate, Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky and Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey are focused on several issues, including drugs and racial disparities in prison.

AMERICA - Reforming the Justice System

"Rand Paul, Cory Booker team up for bipartisan reform of criminal justice system" PBS NewsHour 7/29/2014

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Now to a bipartisan effort on Capitol Hill to try to reform the nation’s criminal justice system.

Two freshman senators, a political odd couple, Democrat Cory Booker of New Jersey and Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, have introduced legislation called the REDEEM Act that would make it easier for juveniles who commit nonviolent crimes to expunge or seal those convictions from their records, lift the federal ban on food stamps and welfare benefits for low-level drug offenders, offer incentives to states that currently try juveniles as adults to encourage them to raise the age to 18, and ban solitary confinement for children, except in the most dangerous cases.

Senators Paul and Booker join me now.

EGYPT - Non-Justice of a Dictatorship

"Egypt’s conviction of Al Jazeera journalists sparks international outcry" (Part-1) PBS NewsHour 6/23/2014

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Elsewhere in the Middle East, three Al-Jazeera journalists learned their fate in a Cairo courtroom today, sparking an international outcry.

Jeffrey Brown has the story.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  Tanks were deployed and tight security in place for the readings of the verdicts, after a five-month trial that was widely denounced outside Egypt as a sham.

JUDGE MOHAMED NAGY SHEHATA (through interpreter):  Seven years of maximum jail time.

JEFFREY BROWN:  The sentences for Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, a Canadian- Egyptian, Australian correspondent Peter Greste, and Egyptian Baher Mohamed, who received 10 years, led to pandemonium at the court; 17 co-defendants were also sentenced.  Fahmy is a former CNN producer who once helped the NewsHour’s Margaret Warner and crew escape an attack by a mob in Cairo

Today, he was yelling, “They will pay for this,” as he and the others were taken away.

His brother, Adel Fadel Fahmy:

ADEL FADEL FAHMY, Brother of Defendant (through interpreter):  This is clear-cut corruption; it is a corrupt and politicized case and everything is wrong in this case.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Fahmy’s family vowed to appeal, as did Peter Greste’s brother, Mike.

MIKE GRESTE, Brother of Defendant:  Wrong verdict.  I don’t — I don’t know how the judge came to that decision.  I would be very interested to hear his reasons for giving that verdict.  But it doesn’t make any sense.

JEFFREY BROWN:  The three journalists were arrested last December and accused of aiding the Muslim Brotherhood by reporting on civil strife in Egypt.  The Brotherhood had been banned as a terrorist group.

At the time, the journalists were working undercover because the government had accused Al-Jazeera of pro-Brotherhood bias.  Last week, the company terminated its operations in Egypt.  Al-Jazeera is owned by the government of Qatar; the Gulf emirate is a political supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, but the network denies any charges of bias.

AL ANSTEY, Managing Director, Al-Jazeera English:  Today was a really grim day for journalists and for journalism.

JEFFREY BROWN:  It’s managing director spoke in Doha.

AL ANSTEY:  People who respect freedom of expression, people who respect basic freedoms should say, no, enough is enough.  Governments who deal with Egypt should recognize the injustice of what took place in Cairo today.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Official denunciations also poured in from around the world.  This was Secretary of State Kerry from Baghdad.

JOHN KERRY, Secretary of State:  Today’s conviction is obviously — it’s a chilling and draconian sentence.  And, you know, it’s deeply disturbing to see in the midst of Egypt’s transition.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Just a day earlier, Secretary Kerry visited Egypt, with word the U.S. is releasing $575 million in assistance that had been on hold, and that Egypt will be getting Apache helicopter gunships to fight insurgents in the Sinai region.

The secretary met with President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, among others.  Last year, the former army leader ousted Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, and last month, he was elected president himself.  All the while, a crackdown on political opponents has intensified.  Alaa Abdel Fattah, a leader of the January 2011 revolution, was sentenced last week to 15 years for violating a ban on protests.

And, on Saturday, Mohamed Badie, the supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, had his death sentence upheld, along with nearly 200 supporters.

"Crackdown on Al Jazeera journalists helps government control Egypt’s narrative" (Part-2) PBS NewsHour 6/23/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The controversial convictions of three Al Jazeera journalists in Egypt are among the most high-profile cases in a general crackdown on dissent.  Jeffrey Brown talks to Michele Dunne of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Michael Hanna of the The Century Foundation about the geopolitics behind the convictions and shifting U.S. policy toward Egypt.

SUPREME COURT - On Florida's IQ Cutoff For Death Penalties

"Supreme Court overturns Florida’s rigid IQ cutoff for death penalty eligibility" PBS NewsHour 5/27/2014

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  The U.S. Supreme Court today declared a Florida rule used to determine if a person is mentally fit for execution to be unconstitutional.

The court has previously ruled that states cannot execute individuals deemed to have an intellectual disability.  Florida had been using an I.Q. score of 70 as its determining factor.  But the justices, in a 5-to-4 decision, said that was too rigid.

For more on the decision, we turn, as always, to Marcia Coyle of “The National Law Journal.”

Marcia.

MARCIA COYLE, The National Law Journal:  Hi, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Great to have you back.

MARCIA COYLE:  Thank you.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  So, Marcia, give us — just remind us of the background of this case.  What was it about?

MARCIA COYLE:  Well, Freddie Lee Hall had been convicted of murder, a murder that took place in 1978.  He and another man had abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered a woman who was seven months pregnant in order to steal her car in connection with a robbery.  They also later killed — shot and killed a police officer.

He’s really been on death row since I think about 1982.  He brought the challenge to the Supreme Court today, that the court decided today, in which he said that Florida’s rigid 70 I.Q. score cutoff violated the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

OKLAHOMA - Botched Execution

My preferred execution for this A-hole is being put on a spit and slow roasted over hot coals.

"Botched execution in Oklahoma raises questions about lethal injection process" PBS NewsHour 4/30/2014

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  In Oklahoma last night, an execution went terribly wrong after the state tried a new, untested combination of drugs in what was supposed to be a lethal injection.  Thirty-eight-year-old Clayton Lockett, convicted of shooting a 19-year-old girl and watching as friends buried her alive, wound up dying from a heart attack in what onlookers described as a gruesome process that took far longer than expected.

As a result, the execution of another convicted killer, which was supposed to take place two hours after Lockett’s, was put on hold by Oklahoma’s Republican governor.

Today, the White House press secretary deplored what happened:

JAY CARNEY, White House Press Secretary:  We have a fundamental standard in this country that, even when the death penalty is justified, it must be carried out humanely.  And I think everyone would recognize that this case fell short of that standard.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Later in the day, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin said the state is launching an investigation.  She said it will try to determine Lockett’s cause of death and whether the Department of Corrections followed appropriate protocols and make recommendations to improve standards going forward.

But Governor Fallin also defended the state’s death penalty law.

BROOKLYN - Righting an Injustice

"Brooklyn DA Moves to Free Man after Long-Buried Evidence Surfaces" by Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica 4/7/2014

Jonathan Fleming has served more than 24 years in prison for a 1989 murder.  Now it has emerged that law enforcement had evidence all along showing he was in Florida at the time of the shooting.

At a hearing tomorrow in Brooklyn Supreme Court, District Attorney Kenneth Thompson is expected to consent to the release of Jonathan Fleming, who has served more than 24 years in prison for a murder that an emerging pile of evidence suggests he did not commit.

The dramatic turn reverses years of steadfast opposition from the District Attorney's Office, which vigorously fought Fleming's appeals for two decades.

Even after extensive exculpatory evidence surfaced during a joint review by former District Attorney Charles "Joe" Hynes' Conviction Integrity Unit and Fleming's attorney, Anthony Mayol, efforts to free Fleming appeared to have stalled.

"It's an amazing feeling for everyone involved," Mayol said of Fleming's sudden impending release.  "We spoke to [Fleming] before it was officially confirmed, and to the extent he believes it's going to happen he is elated, overjoyed, and relieved.  He is beside himself with happiness."

A spokesperson for the Brooklyn District Attorney's office confirmed that Fleming, 51, would likely be released tomorrow, but declined further comment.

That will effectively bring the case against Fleming to a close.  According to a source in law enforcement, Thompson intends to dismiss charges against Fleming "in the interest of justice."

Fleming's quest to prove his innocence got a boost from Taylor Koss, the former deputy chief of the Conviction Integrity Unit, who agreed to help with Fleming's exoneration effort late last year.  Koss was also a central figure in Hynes' decision to release David Ranta, an unemployed printmaker wrongly convicted of killing a Brooklyn rabbi in 1990.

Over the last year, investigators for Fleming and the unit discovered a range of evidence casting doubt on Fleming's guilt and supporting his long-held assertion that he was in Orlando, Fla., visiting Disneyworld with his family when 22-year-old Darryl "Black" Rush was shot to death on August 15, 1989.

Investigators found a receipt showing that Fleming had paid a phone bill at a hotel in Florida just hours before the murder took place; an Orlando police report confirmed that several hotel employees remembered Fleming being there.

The team also found evidence supporting the claim that a key witness had only agreed to testify against Fleming to avoid criminal prosecution, unearthing a command log from the 90th Police Precinct showing the witness had been arrested prior to Fleming's trial.

None of that material was turned over by prosecutors at Fleming's original trial in the summer of 1990.  Asked about the phone receipt, a detective testified that he had "no recollection" of it.

In an interview with ProPublica, Koss said he was "disgusted" when he learned that prosecutors hadn't turned over the phone bill receipt, especially given that Fleming's defense attorney had specifically asked for it.

The push to free Fleming appeared to gain crucial momentum last November, when a member of Hynes' conviction integrity unit traveled to South Carolina with Fleming's private investigators to speak with a man suspected of being the getaway driver.  Not only did he tell them that Fleming wasn't involved in the shooting, he also implicated another man.

"It was an amazing day," said Kim Anklin, a private investigator for Fleming.

But that very night, Hynes lost his bid for re-election, raising concerns that he wouldn't make a decision on what to do with the new evidence before leaving office.  The next month, the head of the Conviction Integrity Unit resigned, telling Fleming's attorneys that the decision on whether to release Fleming had would rest with Hynes.  Hynes never acted, however, effectively punting the decision to Thompson.

As months passed in silence, Fleming's attorneys grew frustrated with Thompson, complaining that he had not communicated how the District Attorney's office would proceed.  On Monday, Mayol said his annoyance with the process had given way to joy.

"The disappointment in the delay goes out the window when you know that your client is going to be vindicated and set free," Mayol said.  "He's waited a long time for this and the paramount focus for me is him getting out."

Fleming has acknowledged that at the time of the shooting he was a drug dealer in Williamsburg.  He had a criminal record, but he always maintained he had nothing to do with Rush's murder.

At Fleming's original trial, the prosecution's case was based primarily on testimony from a single witness who said she had seen the crime and fingered Fleming as the shooter.

Fleming's defense attorney countered with several pieces of evidence to argue that Fleming was in Florida at the time, including plane tickets and video footage of his client enjoying time with his family there.  Several relatives who accompanied Fleming on the trip testified on his behalf.  Fleming's uncle said he picked him up from the airport when he returned on August 16, 1989.  The murder took place at approximately 2:15 a.m. on August 15.

But the assistant district attorney who handled the case, James Leeper, pointed out that there was no footage of Fleming in Florida on August 15, and it was possible that Fleming could have flown to New York, shot the victim, and then flown back to Florida.  Fleming's defense attorney stipulated to that being a possibility, even though Leeper had no evidence proving it.

Not long after Fleming was convicted in July 1990, the eyewitness recanted, saying she only testified because she was threatened with jail time if she didn't cooperate.  Judge Albert Koch, who presided over the trial and the initial appeal, didn't believe the recantation, however, and affirmed Fleming's conviction.

Fleming has filed numerous appeals since then, but each was defeated by the District Attorney's office.

Last week, in preparation for a hearing later this month, Mayol and Koss sent a letter to the New York State Board of Parole that laid out all of the exculpatory evidence, including sworn statements from new witnesses implicating another shooter.

In the last three years, the parole board has granted parole to at least two other Brooklyn men based on newly discovered evidence.

That won't be necessary for Fleming.

"Thank goodness we don't have to go to the parole board," Koss said.  "To me this was never about getting him paroled, this was about getting a consent to release, this was about getting the indictment dismissed, not 'you are a convicted felon out on parole, but you are an innocent man.'"

EGYPT - More From the Military Dictatorship, Journalists Trail

"Trial begins for Al-Jazeera journalists in Egypt" PBS Newshour 2/20/2014

GWEN IFILL:  Three Al-Jazeera television journalists arrested in Egypt last December went on trial today accused of terrorism.  Proceedings at Cairo’s Tora prison came amid a continued crackdown by Egypt’s military government that has ensnared reporters, as well as the political opposition.

Paul Mason of Independent Television News has our story.

PAUL MASON:  Inside, three journalists from the Al-Jazeera network faced terrorism charges. Mohamed Fahmy, Baher Mohammed and Australian Peter Greste have been held since the 29th of December.

FARAG FATHY, Lawyer for the Defense (through interpreter):  We asked that they be released pending investigations, and we also asked to question all witnesses and demanded to question the technical committee that had examined the equipment which was seized.

PAUL MASON:  Outside, their supporters waited anxiously for news.

HEATHER ALLAN, Head of News Gathering, Al-Jazeera English:  We believe we will be acquitted.  The lawyers are fully on board with us.  They fully believe in our case.  They fully believe that we were just operating as journalists.  We don’t have an agenda.  We have got nothing against Egypt.  We certainly don’t lie or do biased reporting.

PAUL MASON:  What they’re accused of is more than that.  This police footage complete with doomy soundtrack was played on a pro-government TV channel which labeled them a terrorist cell.

The charges they face today include manipulating footage to give a false image that Egypt is in the middle of a civil war and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been designated a terrorist group.

NICHOLAS PIACHAUD, Amnesty International:  Today’s trial sends a very clear message, I think: Egypt doesn’t tolerate dissent.  That is a message at international media, but also national media in Egypt.  These men face very serious criminal charges.  But I think the real reason they are in jail right now is because they dared to question the narrative of the authorities.  And that is really what this trial is about.

PAUL MASON:  In December, these three secular youth leaders, instrumental in the original revolution of 2011, were given three years hard labor.  The crackdown on the Brotherhood has come alongside repression of bloggers, secularists and democratic opposition parties.

NICHOLAS PIACHAUD:  What we have right now is a widening circle of oppression, one that doesn’t just target supporters of Mohammed Morsi and news outlets like Al-Jazeera, but also bloggers like Alaa Abdul Fattah, people who were very opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood when they were in power.

PAUL MASON:  The hearing was postponed until the 5th of March.  The men remain behind these notorious walls.

MILITARY - Court Martial of U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan

"Fort Hood Suspect Claims 'I Am the Shooter' in Court Martial Opening Statement" PBS Newshour 8/6/2013

Excerpt

MARGARET WARNER (Newshour):  The court-martial of the Army psychiatrist who opened fire on scores of fellow soldiers in 2009 got under way today at Fort Hood in Texas.

Major Nidal Hasan is charged with many counts of murder and attempted murder for the attack that killed 13 people and wounded more than 30.  In an opening statement, the prosecutor said Hasan had tried to kill as many soldiers as he could.

In his opening statement, Hasan, who is representing himself, said, "The evidence will clearly show that I am the shooter."

Los Angeles Times reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske is covering the trial and joins us now from Fort Hood.

BOSTON - Mobster's Trial, Prosecution's Closing Arguments

"Prosecution Presents 'Mountain of Evidence' Against Bulger in Three-Hour Closing" PBS Newshour 8/5/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The case against James "Whitey" Bulger drew to a close as both defense and prosecution gave their final statements.  Margaret Warner talks to Kevin Cullen, who has been following the trial for the Boston Globe and was in the courtroom for the more than three-hour summation by the prosecution of all of the evidence against Bulger.

AMERICA - President Obama on Trayvon Martin's Death

"Obama Gives Highly Personal Take on Trayvon Martin Death, Urges Soul-Searching" PBS Newshour 7/19/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Barack Obama offered some personal reflection about the ways persistent racial prejudices inform how African-Americans have reacted to the death of Trayvon Martin and the George Zimmerman trial.  Jeffrey Brown gets perspective on his remarks from Jonathan Turley, Carol Swain, Leonard Pitts Jr., and Michael Beschloss.

Ladies and gentlemen, my President of the United States of America....

FULL SPEECH (16:59)

FLORIDA - State-Sanctioned-Murder Zimmerman Verdict

My post title says how I feel.

"Justice Department Reviews Possibility of Civil Rights Case Against Zimmerman" (Part-1) PBS Newshour 7/15/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Attorney General Eric Holder called the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin "tragic," but he did not comment on whether the federal government would file civil rights charges against George Zimmerman.  Gwen Ifill reports on how Americans -- who turned out for vigils and protests this weekend -- are reacting to the verdict.

"Was Justice Served in Murder Acquittal of George Zimmerman?" (Part-2) PBS Newshour 7/15/2013

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The George Zimmerman verdict has provoked passionate debate about legal justice and race in the U.S.  Judy Woodruff gets reaction from Christina Swarns of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, New Yorker contributor Jelani Cobb, Jonathan Turley of the George Washington University Law School, and Carol Swain of Vanderbilt Law School.