Penn Valley Common Read: Just Mercy

An interactive article about the use of split juries to convict defendants in Louisiana. New York Times Magazine, January 2020.

Bryan Stevenson discusses the links between slavery and the current American justice system. New York Times Magazine, August 2019.

The article begins witha satirical video, but ends with a list of 39 known instances just this year when someone called the police to complain about black people doing everyday activities. New York Times, October 2018.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, opening in Montgomery, Ala., is dedicated to victims of white supremacy. Bryan Stevenson's Equal Justice Initiative helped create the memorial. New York Times, April 2018.

An acclaimed book about discrimination against African Americans in the criminal justice system has been banned from some prisons in New Jersey, according to newly obtained records. The New Jim Crow, an award-winning book by Michelle Alexander published in 2010, appears on lists of publications that inmates in state correctional facilities may not possess. The Guardian, January 2018.

Metropolitan Community College has offered a full scholarship to Lamonte McIntyre, the Kansas City, Kan., man who was recently exonerated after being wrongfully imprisoned for 23 years. MCCKC.edu, December 2017.

"Black people convicted of murder or sexual assault are significantly more likely than their white counterparts to be later found innocent of the crimes, according to a review of nearly 2,000 exonerations nationwide over almost three decades. Innocent blacks also had to wait disproportionately longer for their names to be cleared than innocent whites, the review, released by the National Registry of Exonerations, found. Blacks wrongfully convicted of murder, for example, spent an average of three more years in prison before being released than whites who were cleared." New York Times, March 2017.

Private prison companies, which stand to make big gains under President Trump’s tough new immigration orders, also have contributed big sums to pro-Trump groups, including the organization that raised a record $100 million for his inauguration. USA Today, February 2017.

The Supreme Court blocked the execution of a Texas murderer because of racially discriminatory testimony presented by his own defense team. The 6-2 ruling was the second in the court's new term to overturn a death sentence, and it could be a harbinger of things to come. USA Today, February 2017.

The Supreme Court is weighing in on two cases in which death-row inmates are raising questions about the actions of their lawyers. The high court has taken up many cases that involve the Constitution's guarantee of a competent lawyer to a criminal defendant, but these cases pose different issues for the justices. Asosciated Press, December 2016.

The death penalty won newfound support in the November 2016 election as voters in three states approved ballot measures backing capital punishment. Reuters, November 2016.

County Executive Frank White an signed executive order declaring that convicted felons who have served their sentences no longer need disclose their criminal history when applying for jobs with Jackson County, MO. Kansas City Star, November 2016.

"Successful reintegration is not just a concern for those who return from prison: it is also a matter of public safety and economic necessity. Accordingly, a criminal justice system that emphasizes incarceration but does not support the journey home does a disservice to the formerly incarcerated as well as to the public." Brookings Institute, October 2016.

Many forensic feature-comparison methods have historically been assumed rather than established to be foundationally valid based on appropriate empirical evidence (such as bite mark comparisons). Only within the past decade has the forensic science community begun to recognize the need to empirically test whether specific methods meet the scientific criteria for scientific validity. This 2015 report analyzes these methods and then recommends that some methods should become established practice (possibly in revised form) as scientifically valid, while others are scientifically invalid and should be discarded. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, September 2016.

An opinion article discussing the contradiction that many forms of evidence are not scientifically valid, yet are allowed as evidence in criminal trials. Washington Post, September 2016.

The ACLU of Missouri has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the state of Missouri's process for selecting witnesses for executions. Pitch, September 2016.

Brandy Buckmaster, a witness ordered incarcerated by public prosecutor until trial, speaks to The Guardian about the ‘perverse’ and retraumatizing policy. The Guardian, September 2016.

This article is part biography of Bryan Stevenson, part history, and part report on Stevenson's efforts to create a memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, for the over 4,000 victims of lynching. New Yorker, August 2016.

The Justice Department plans to end its use of private prisons after officials concluded the facilities are both less safe and less effective at providing correctional services than those run by the government. Washington Post, August 2016.

The Justice Department proposed the first department-wide standards for forensic expert testimony Friday, responding to findings in 2015 that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit had overstated testimony in criminal trials for decades. Washington Post, June 2016.

The Supreme Court gave a black death-row prisoner new life by ruling that prosecutors unconstitutionally barred all potential black jurors from his trial nearly 30 years ago. USA Today, May 2016.

A Massachusetts man imprisoned 30 years for rape has been granted a retrial, marking the first conviction in the country overturned solely because of recent FBI admissions that its evidence experts for decades overstated forensic hair links to crimes. Washington Post, February 2016.

Tyra Patterson says she was an innocent teenage bystander who ran away from a murder. Prosecutors say she was party to a killing. In the first chapter of a Guardian special report, explore how a young woman from poverty-stricken Ohio fell victim to America’s addiction to incarceration – and what might still set her free. The Guardian, January 2016.

An article from the Alabama Innocence Project's "Henry County Report." Beginning in early 1996, the Dothan (AL) Police Department received complaints from black victims that drugs and weapons were being planted. Specifically young black men who had clean records were targeted. Police Chief John White allegedly instructed senior officers to ignore the complaints and they willingly complied. Henry County Report, December 2015.

Lawyers for two Missouri men with unique medical issues, scheduled to be executed by lethal injection, say lethal injection would be cruel and unusual. The U.S. Supreme Court stayed their executions while they pursue appeals. The gas chamber has been suggested as an alternative. Kansas City Star, December 2015.

Lawyers and activists opposed to the death penalty are bitterly divided about how to proceed. Some say it is imperative to bring a major case to the court as soon as practicable. Others worry that haste may result in a losing decision that could entrench capital punishment for years. New York Times, November 2015.

The convicted killer of three in a shooting at an Overland Park Jewish center is sentenced to death. KCUR Central Standard, November 2015.

New York has agreed to a major overhaul in the way solitary confinement is administered in the state’s prisons, with the goal of significantly reducing the number of inmates held in isolation, cutting the maximum length of stay and improving their living conditions. New York Times, December 2015.

At a time when other states in the US are backing away from the death penalty, Missouri has done the opposite. It is currently executing its death row inmates faster than any other state in the country, at a rate of about one per month. BBC, September 2015.

Article detailing the upcoming early release of federal inmates serving harsh sentences, and the issues surrounding this. New York Times, October 2015.

An article by Ta-Nehisi Coates. American politicians are now eager to disown a failed criminal-justice system that’s left the U.S. with the largest incarcerated population in the world. But they've failed to reckon with history. Fifty years after Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s report “The Negro Family” tragically helped create this system, it's time to reclaim his original intent. The Atlantic, October 2015.

A review of a study that found differences in the juvenile justice system between boys and girls. UT News, September 2015.

From Bloomberg Business: The U.S. Supreme Court began what may become a multi-stage debate over the reach of its 2012 decision banning automatic life-without-parole sentences for juvenile murderers. Bloomberg, October 2015.

Cormega Copening, 17, could be sentenced as an adult to 10 years in prison and forced to register as a sex offender for having nude photos of himself and his 16-year-old girlfriend. The Root, September 2015.

The most comprehensive database of US police killings ever published. The Guardian, June 2015.

The Inside-Out prison exchange program led by a Baker University sociology professor has brought students together with inmates at the Topeka Correctional Facility women’s prison since 2009. Kansas City Star, May 2015.

Article spotlighting the issues brought up because Federal law does not require police departments to report arrest-related homicides. Al-jazeera, May 2015.

A report with statistics, maps, and graphs regarding the number and location of incarcerated black men. New York Times, April 2015.

This article uses the most recent data available to show the racial makeup of police departments and the communities they police. Includes interactive graphs and maps. New York Times, April 2015.

An editorial arguing for the abolition of bail on grounds that it is unfair to minority and poor populations. New York Times, April 2015.

A 2015 report on a joint study between The Innocence Project and the FBI. The FBI has concluded that the examiners’ testimony in at least 90 percent of trial transcripts the Bureau analyzed as part of its Microscopic Hair Comparison Analysis Review contained erroneous statements. FBI.gov, April 2015.

For most major crimes, police don't even make an arrest or identify a suspect. That's what police call "clearing" a crime; the "clearance rate" is the percentage of offenses cleared. This article explains the issues created with clearing crimes. NPR News, March 2015.

Two girls who were 12-years old at the time the crime was committed will be tried as adults in a stabbing case in Wisconsin. Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, March 2015.

Confessions and eyewitness testimony are generally considered strong evidence at criminal proceedings. This scholarly article explores the idea that memories of crime may not be reliable, as the human mind can create what are known as "autobiographical false memories." The empirical demonstrations of such false memories for crime and corresponding false confessions carry major implications. Psychological Science, January 2015.

Capital punishment information is collected annually as part of the National Prisoner Statistics program. This is a comprehensive summary of that data through 2013. Bureau of Justice Statistics, December 2014.

The black trans man tells The Advocate how alleged neglect and mistreatment by Georgia prison staff led to him nearly dying while held in isolation. The Advocate, July 2013.

Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was convicted of taking $1 million in bribes from developers of juvenile detention centers. The judge then presided over cases that would send juveniles to those same centers. The case came to be known as "kids-for-cash." Includes links to related stories. NPR News, August 2011.

Wilbert Rideau writes about the mental, emotional, and physical condiitons of death row. The Progressive, April 2011.

Although public attention has focused on the disproportionate number of youth of color in confinement, it is necessary to view the justice system as a process. This exhaustive article examines statistics from every part of that process. National Council on Crime and Delinquency, January 2007.

Police officers were compared with community members in terms of the speed and accuracy with which they made simulated decisions to shoot (or not shoot) Black and White targets. Both samples exhibited robust racial bias in response speed. Officers outperformed community members on a number of measures, including overall speed and accuracy. Moreover, although community respondents set the decision criterion lower for Black targets than for White targets (indicating bias), police officers did not. The authors suggest that training may not affect the speed with which stereotype incongruent targets are processed but that it does affect the ultimate decision (particularly the placement of the decision criterion). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2007.

The current work examined police officers’ decisions to shoot Black and White criminal suspects in a computer simulation. Responses to the simulation revealed that upon initial exposure to the program, the officers were more likely to mistakenly shoot unarmed Black compared with unarmed White suspects. However, after extensive training with the program, in which the race of the suspect was unrelated to the presence of a weapon, the officers were able to eliminate this bias. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the elimination of racial biases and the training of police officers. Psychological Science, 2005.

Using police officers and undergraduates as participants, the authors investigated the influence of stereotypic associations on visual processing in 5 studies. Study 1 demonstrates that Black faces influence participants’ ability to spontaneously detect degraded images of crime-relevant objects. Conversely, Studies 2– 4 demonstrate that activating abstract concepts (i.e., crime and basketball) induces attentional biases toward Black male faces. Moreover, these processing biases may be related to the degree to which a social group member is physically representative of the social group (Studies 4 –5). These studies, taken together, suggest that some associations between social groups and concepts are bidirectional and operate as visual tuning devices—producing shifts in perception and attention of a sort likely to influence decision making and behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2004.

A page linking to articles in which the people who actively help perform the executions discuss how the death penalty affects them personally. Death Penalty Info Center, undated.