"Patterns of racial bias in jury selection are deeply rooted in the American legal system."
✍🏾 In an op-ed for @CNN, LDF Counsels Adam Murphy & Chris Kemmit discuss our flawed jury selection process.
https://t.co/mYr0T9EoWF
Overwhelming evidence shows that prosecutors use peremptory challenges to discriminate against jurors of color. The answer to this problem is simple, as @Adam_B_Murphy, @miriamkrinsky, and I explain: prosecutors should simply stop using them. https://t.co/5S4Oj6eERE
We filed an amicus brief highlighting how Pennsylvania's felony murder law disproportionately targets Black people in support of Derek Lee, a Black man serving a mandatory life without parole (LWOP) sentence for felony murder.
https://t.co/McbaFIQtqU
"When prosecutors and other officials exclude Black people from jury service based on race, they are re-invoking a long history of exclusion and sending a clear signal that the people they are removing cannot be entrusted with full citizenship."
https://t.co/mHXomNq9AE
#BREAKING: The Senate has voted to confirm Natasha Merle to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. We enthusiastically congratulate our LDF colleague on her well-deserved and historic confirmation.
https://t.co/V5cHsyK7ZG
#BREAKING: In the first court ruling of its kind, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ordered a Black man of Muslim faith a new trial after finding that his court-appointed attorney had well-documented racist and Islamophobic views.
https://t.co/RNRY4AuIRn
Rikers bears the name of a white judge, Richard Riker, who adjudicated fugitive slave act claims. Imagine being confined on Rikers, taken to the courthouse, and watching as the white prosecutor excludes all of the Black prospective jurors. Proud to have worked on this piece.
Holding prosecutors accountable is a critical place to start, especially since prosecutors are so often cloaked in impunity through absolute immunity.
https://t.co/P5B6tl4w7e
On the one hand, this NC decision is remarkable because the prosecutor admitted to striking a Black juror because she was Black, and the court just let it happen. On the other hand, this is exactly what happens in courtrooms across the country every single day.
“Prosecutors as ministers of justice under the ethics rules cannot discriminate on the basis of race, both for the purpose of having a fair trial for people like Mr. Murray and for the prospective jurors who are dutifully reporting to court.” - Adam Murphy, LDF Assistant Counsel
As the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit recognized, qualified immunity does not shield from liability government officials who routinely harass and humiliate someone for the sacred and gentle act of prayer.
https://t.co/3VwPBAs2jj
Today, LDF litigator Adam Murphy called on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to reverse the conviction of Anthony Dew, a Black man of Muslim faith, whose court appointed attorney engaged in a pervasive pattern of publicly expressing anti-Black racism and religious bigotry.
I'm running the 2022 NYC Marathon to raise funds (w/ @katrinafeldkamp & @Adam_B_Murphy) for the phenomenal holistic youth defense & advocacy org @YouthRepresent!
Any contributions (& sharing the link) would be much appreciated! You can donate here: https://t.co/C19FVVo4vX
Great article by an amazing friend and former client about his experience feeling like a financial asset and the role of private money in public prisons
https://t.co/3OKbpe39hy
According to a source who has been notified about the decision, President Biden has decided to nominate to the Supreme Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
The @NAACP_LDF qualified immunity team, and our partners at Maxwell Tillman, just got a terrific qualified immunity decision from the 11th Circuit. Our 14-year-old client, T.R., was strip searched *twice* by school officials--the second time when they knew she had no contraband.
🚨 Breaking! 🚨 @NAACP_LDF wins Voting Rights Act case against Alabama’s Congresional maps — requiring AL to draw 2 majority Black districts! Congrats to colleagues @GreaterBhmMin@AlabamaNAACP@ACLUAlabama
BREAKING: The district court just denied the three motions to dismiss in our challenge to provisions in Georgia's voter suppression bill, S.B. 202. Onward! 🗳️
Here is the order for our case: https://t.co/suZ0i6wHn9.
@NAACP_LDF@ACLU@ACLUofGA@splcenter@WilmerHale@DWTLaw