Saturday, June 23, 2018

As voters begin to realize that prosecutors in the world's most incarcerated nation may not be the best people to run the government, the era of the prosecutor politician could be on its way out.

Eric Holder’s recent visit to New Hampshire has sparked speculation that he might mount a presidential run in 2020.

During a June 1 visit at the “Politics and Eggs” series at Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, the former U.S. attorney general blasted gerrymandering—“I think our democracy is under attack”—but puzzlingly endorsed the restrictive voter registration law that New Hampshire Republicans have pushed through the state legislature that now awaits review in the state’s highest court.

Thursday, June 21, 2018

These are great suggestions that would be fiscally responsible and also speak to justice

Opinion

N.F.L. Players to Trump: Here’s Whom You Should Pardon

By Doug Baldwin, Anquan Boldin, Malcolm Jenkins and Benjamin Watson

The writers are former and current professional football players.

President Trump recently made an offer to National Football League players like us who are committed to protesting injustice. Instead of protesting, he suggested, we should give him names of people we believe were “unfairly treated by the justice system.” If he agrees they were treated unfairly, he said, he will pardon them.

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Lauren Gill

Lauren is a Brooklyn-based journalist covering criminal justice. Follow her on Twitter.

Activism1 day ago

Meet the Mother Teresa for Pot Prisoners

A 76-year-old woman has spent the past decade fighting for freedom for marijuana lifers.

Beth Curtis used to fill her days playing tennis with friends and attending community board meetings in her rural home of Zanesville, Ohio, a small coal country city on the outskirts of Appalachia. But in the past decade, the social calendar of the 76-year-old widow and mother of three has all but disappeared. Instead, she spends her time corresponding with incarcerated people, sending mailers to cannabis companies, talking to the media, and updating her website, LifeForPot.com—all exercises dedicated to advocating for nonviolent offenders serving life sentences without the possibility of parole on marijuana convictions. Called the “Mother Teresa for Pot Prisoners,” Curtis is lauded as a crucial voice in criminal justice circles for her work calling attention to those who remain incarcerated on marijuana charges as the plant becomes legal across the country.

Monday, June 11, 2018

This gives hope for all the nonviolent marijuana offenders serving sentences of Life for Pot.

Trump asks for clemency names and lists promptly arrive at White House

by Steven Nelson

| June 11, 2018 06:18 PM

President Trump told reporters Friday that he wanted to give clemency to more people treated unfairly by the legal system, particularly cases involving people like Alice Johnson, who he released from a life sentence for drug dealing at the request of Kim Kardashian West.
"I want to do people that are unfairly treated like an Alice," he said before boarding a Marine helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House. Hours later, lists of additional names were hand-delivered to the West Wing.

Saturday, June 9, 2018

This article in the New York Times talks about Trump's Clemency plans and mentions John Knock who is a nonviolent first time marijuana offender who is serving two life terms for a marijuana conspiracy in the 70s and 80s.

By Katie Benner

WASHINGTON — For those who view the Justice Department’s pardon system as slow and sclerotic, with its backlog of more than 11,000 cases, they need only look to the case of Matthew Charles.

Mr. Charles was sentenced in 1996 to 35 years in prison for selling crack cocaine. In prison, he took college classes, became a law clerk and taught fellow inmates. He was released early, in 2016, and began rebuilding his life, volunteering at a food pantry and even falling in love.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/us/politics/pardons-justice-department-trump.html