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A Broken Promise in Texas: Race, the Death Penalty and the Duane Buck Case

  • Clout Street: Quinn signs death penalty ban, commutes 15 death row sentences to life

    3/09/11
    Source: 
    The Chicago Tribune

    SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Pat Quinn today signed into law a historic ban on the death penalty in Illinois and commuted the sentences of 15 death row inmates to life without parole.

    Quinn signed the legislation in his Capitol office surrounded by longtime opponents of capital punishment in a state where flaws in the process led to the exoneration of numerous people sentenced to death.

  • Jeffries Calls Stop-and-Frisk Settlement a "Step Forward"

    3/08/11
    Source: 
    Bed-Stuy Patch

    Last July, Governor Paterson signed into law a bill that did away with the NYPD's stop-and-frisk database.

    The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries and State Senator Eric Adams, made it illegal for police officers to add the names and addresses of every person they stop, question and frisk to an electronic database used in criminal investigations.

    Nearly 90 percent of the people in that database are innocent of any crime, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union.

  • Civil Rights Groups Urge Florida Board Of Executive Clemency Not To Further Restrict Voting Rights

    3/07/11

    Civil Rights Groups Urge Florida Board Of Executive Clemency Not To Further Restrict Voting Rights
    Move Would Harm Voting Fairness In A State With History Of Serious Election Problems

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    March 7, 2011

    CONTACT:
    Mel Gagarin, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; (212) 965-2783; mgagarin@naacpldf.org

  • City Settles Stop And Frisk Lawsuits

    3/06/11
    Source: 
    NY1
     The city will pay out more than $170,000 to settle with nine people who claimed they were illegally stopped and frisked by police at city housing projects.

  • NY Daily News: NYPD stop-and-frisk policy in public housing leads to $150K in settlements

    3/05/11
    Source: 
    New York Daily News

    The NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk practice inside public housing has led to nine recent settlements, the Daily News has learned.

    In February, the city agreed to shell out more than $150,000 to nine of 16 plaintiffs in a lawsuit claiming they were illegally stopped on Housing Authority property because they were black or Hispanic, court documents show.

    "I'm happy with the settlement. I hope it does help, but actually, it's still happening," said Hector Suarez, 56, who will get $5,001.00, according to court papers filed in Manhattan Federal Court.