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New Research: Harris County District Attorney’s Office Was Three Times More Likely to Seek Death for African Americans Like Duane Buck
3/13/13Mr. Buck, Called a Future Danger Because He is Black, Files Petition Seeking New, Fair Sentencing Hearing
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LDF Lawyer Featured in News Coverage About Access to Elite High Schools
3/13/13Source:WNYC radio/www.Schoolbook.comDamon Hewitt, Director of LDF’s Education Practice Group, was featured in a WNYC radio/www.Schoolbook.com story about LDF’s challenge to the admissions process for New York City’s elite Specialized High Schools.
“Last year almost 1000 students were offered admission to Stuyvesant, only 19 of those offers were to African American students,” said Damon Hewitt . . . “I don’t believe there are only 19 brilliant African-American students rising from 8th to 9th grade.”
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LDF Director-Counsel Rejects Schools Using Criminal System as a Disciplinary Tool
3/12/13Source:The PoliticoLDF Director-Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill called on school districts today to reject harsh practices in schools that push children who pose disciplinary problems into the criminal justice system. Recently LDF filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights for the Department of Education challenging the practices of the Bryan Independent School District in Texas, where school police issue Class C Misdemeanor tickets for students accused of using profanity.
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LDF lawyers discuss voting rights from the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma
3/11/13Source:LDFLDF Director-Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill and Special Counsel Debo Adegbile were interviewed on MSNBC at the foot of the Edmund Pettus bridge, the site where marchers were beaten by Alabama police in 1965 while protesting for voting rights.
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Spiritual Leaders of Diverse Faiths Call for New, Fair Sentencing Hearing in Duane Buck Death Penalty Case
3/11/13Source:Houston ChronicleOn March 7, 2013, Rev. William A. "Bill" Lawson, Archbishop Emeritus Joseph A. Fiorenza, and Rabbi Emeritus Samuel Karff eloquently explained how and why their commitments to faith and justice motivated them to speak out and publicly ask the Harris County District Attorney to ensure that Duane Buck -- who was sentenced to death in 1997 after a prosecutor elicited testimony indicating that he posed a future danger because he was Black — receives a new, fair sentencing hearing.