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Criminal Justice News This Week (week of 07-20-20)
Justice Dept. carries out second federal execution after another late-night, divided Supreme Court ruling "The Justice Department on Thursday carried out the second federal execution this week, following another set of Supreme Court orders issued in the dead of night saying the lethal injection could proceed. Federal officials in Indiana executed Wesley Purkey, 68.")
The Michigan Supreme Court Is Reviewing the Case of a Teenager Incarcerated After Not Doing Online Schoolwork During the Pandemic "Attorneys for a 15-year-old sent to juvenile detention for not doing her schoolwork argued the teenager is not a threat to the community, contrary to a judge’s ruling. Now Michigan’s Supreme Court is stepping in."
How Long Can You Hide a Dead Body in a Prison Cell? "Mental-health problems, short staffing plague a Texas lockup in COVID lockdown."
The Most Widely Used Risk Assessment Tool in Each U.S State "Tools that have the broadest impact and deployment are ones that look at recidivism pretrial risk in adult populations. Here's a look the specific tools in use in each state, and the criminal justice decision points they influence."
'Marsy's Law,' Public Records Law Clash in Police Case "The city of Tallahassee and media organizations tried to persuade a circuit judge that a 2018 constitutional amendment aimed at protecting victims’ rights does not allow police officers involved in use-of-force incidents to keep their identities secret."
We Understand Implicit Bias, Now What? A Conversation With Stanford Psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt "Over the years, we've been learning how implicit bias — one's unconscious attitudes or beliefs about a group of people — targets Black people at all levels of society from health care to schools and policing. Regardless of race, everyone carries societal biases."
Recording of 837 attorney-client phone calls ‘borders on the ridiculous’ "Maine defense lawyers were routinely recorded by four county jails in the past year while having confidential conversations with clients. The majority of county jails, however, are refusing to hand over call records."
Bronx judge challenges microscopic evidence used to match bullets to guns; NYPD insists methods are ‘reliable’ "A Bronx judge says there is a 'significant flaw' in the forensic method police use to link bullets to guns — a ruling that led to one suspect’s acquittal and could impact scores of pending and future gun cases, say criminal defense lawyers.”
