In a Netflix original documentary titled 13TH, to signify the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, scholars, activists and politicians discuss and analyze the criminalization of African Americans in the United States. This thought-provoking film argues that the mass incarceration of African Americans across the United States is in fact an extension of slavery. See NPR Review. The filmmaker Ava DuVernay’s website features the documentary’s official trailer along with a list of reviews from variety of newspapers. Check it out!
Tag: race
What’s Wrong with America’s Criminal Justice System in 40+ Tweets
North Carolina criminal law attorney T. Greg Doucette’s twitter rant went viral. Although only tweeting, he does an excellent job in capturing what’s wrong with the American criminal justice system, particularly when race is involved.
Related Readings:
- Patrick Hogan, This 43-Tweet Story Explains How Black Kids are Treated by America’s Criminal Justice System, Fusion (Feb. 23, 2016).
- T. Greg Doucette (@greg_doucette), That Time One of My Weekly Rants Went Viral, Twitter (Feb. 24, 2016),
- T. Greg Doucette (@greg_doucette, @bkenes), Long-Read: Defense Attorney reflects on Flawed Justice System (Feb. 23, 2016).
- Black Matters, How African-American Kids Are Treated by America’s Criminal Justice System (Feb. 26, 2016).
Interactive Map Displaying Exonerations in the United States
PhD. Pamela Perez, Professor of biostatistics at Loma Linda University, conducted research for Safer-America.com in which she examined the 1,450 exonerations listed on the National Registry of Exonerations as of Oct. 20, 2014. She reported that although one cannot know for sure, the numbers collected so far show that “[B]lack Americans are exonerated at a substantially slower rate than any other race.” The collected data was then translated into an interactive map showing exoneration information through the United States breaking down exonerations by state, crime and race of the wrongfully convicted.
Pace Criminal Justice Blog has reported on the issue of wrongful convictions and exonerations, including, among others, the following posts:
- Crime-less Exonerations
- The North Carolina Exonerations: Innocence Commissions
- The Jonathan Fleming Case: Investigation of Wrongful Conviction
- Many Wrongful Convictions: Not So Many Answers
- NY Appellate Court Upholds Vacatur of Conviction Based Upon DNA Evidence
- Compensation for Exonerees
- Development in Compensation for Exonerees
- Actual Innocence: Landmark Decision Changes Post-Conviction Landscape in New York
Additional Reading:
- Wrongfully Convicted African-Americans Wait Longer to be Exonerated Than Others: Study, The Huffington Post (Oct. 29, 2014).
- The Innocence Project