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In 2000, Corey Williams, a Black teenager with an intellectual disability, was tried and convicted in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, for the murder of a pizza delivery man at his friend’s house. Williams was just 16 years old at the time and due to his disability, still wet himself, sucked his thumb, and ate

While the CIA has been trying to salvage Gina Haspel’s rocky nomination to lead the agency with a series of gushing tweets and by making public only flattering bits of her record, the American people have to reckon with a nominee whose role in torture and the destruction of torture evidence is still shrouded in secrecy. The CIA

New Hampshire is the only state in New England that still has the death penalty. That has to change. This archaic practice defies New Hampshire values and defies justice. The state has come close to repealing capital punishment in the past only to fall short. There is now a renewed push to end this barbaric punishment in the current legislative session. A

This week, Congress is set to begin consideration of the annual defense bill, also known as the National Defense Authorization Act. The NDAA sets spending priorities for the Department of Defense and is one of few pieces of legislation that Congress takes up every year. Legislators haven’t failed to pass an NDAA in 57 consecutive years. Its “must-pass” status makes the NDAA an attractive vehicle for members to try to

“Cobb C-L-3-6-9-1, let’s go. Get your shit. You're outta here.” While I am sure that this was not the last thing said to me before I walked past the gun tower and t

Four years to the day that the Flint water crisis began, there has been notable progress. Multiple tests, both independent and government-run, have shown average lead levels dropping back below the federal action level as a result of switching the city from the highly corrosive Flint River back to the safe and clean Detroit water system. In response to the testing, Gov. Rick Snyder recently announced that the state would no longer provide free bottled water to the city’s residents, but it would continue to provide water filters free of charge. But many of the city’s residents don’t much believe the water’s safe. Who can blame them? Because of decisions made

On a pleasant May evening in 2016, Fred Karash and four friends were enjoying a boat trip on Lake Erie when, without warning, they were stopped by law enforcement officers and detained for more than an hour while the officers searched Fred’s 23-foot cabin cruiser. The officers, who admitted they had no reason to suspect the boaters had violated

A couple of weeks ago, Trump designated April as Second Chance Month. He declared that our nation must “provide opportunities for people with criminal records to earn an honest second chance.” Just before that declaration, on March 7, Trump established a Federal Interagency Council on Crime Prevention and Improving Reentry. In doing so, Trump said that we need “to provide those who have engaged in criminal activity with greater opportunities to lead productive lives.” All this talk sounds great, but unfortunately, that’s all it is. In action,

This piece first appeared in The Washington Post.  If the Facebook privacy debacle has shown one thing, it’s that technology companies have become immens