Crime Story Daily

This is a curated selection of highlights from Crime Story Daily this week. On the criminal justice policy front: The New York Times reports on new developments in the Capitol riot investigation. This week, the DOJ unveiled new, more serious charges – including conspiracy – against several people who had initially been charged with lesser crimes after the attack, including leaders of the far-right group the Proud Boys. CNN reports that new charges represent an effort on the part of federal prosecutors to move away from so-called “low-hanging fruit arrests” and to start building more complicated cases, with a focus...

PM Stories Virginia, Shifting Left Fast, Moves to Abolish Death Penalty Trip Gabriel, New York Times Virginia may abolish the death penalty. There’s a racist history behind why a few jurisdictions use it most. Frank R. Baumgartner and Christian Caron, Washington Post He’s Too Mentally Ill to Execute. Why Is He Still on Death Row After 45 Years? Keri Blakinger and Maurice Chammah, The Marshall Project I Got COVID at Rikers. I’m Still Suffering. Michele Evans, New York Times Plan called off to shorten sentences of Massachusetts prisoners who get COVID vaccine Bill Hutchinson, ABC News Workers in LA’s courts are dying of COVID-19 as...

PM Stories COVID-19 is Spreading Faster Than Ever. Jail Populations are Surging, Too Jerry Iannelli, The Appeal New Surge of COVID Is Spreading “Like Wildfire” in Illinois Prisons Brian Dolinar, Truthout State Rescinds ‘Good Time’ For Vaccine Offer To Prisoners After Baker Intervenes Deborah Becker, WBUR Parole boards approved fewer releases in 2020 than in 2019, despite the raging pandemic Tiana Herring, Prison Policy Initiative What the Pandemic Revealed About ‘Progressive’ Prosecutors Malik Neal, New York Times The Next Step in Reform: Defund Prosecutors? Andrea Cipriano, The Crime Report Inside One Prosecutor’s Revolt Against DA Gascón’s Criminal Justice Agenda Frank Stoltze, LAist What two California recall efforts...

PM Stories Trump’s Death Penalty Zeal May Pave the Way for Its Demise Maurice Chammah, Daily Beast Since 1608, Virginia has executed more people than any other state. It may now abolish the death penalty. Peter Dujardin, Virginian-Pilot Victims’ Families Want Virginia to End The Death Penalty Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, The Appeal Is an Innocent Man Still Languishing on Death Row? Nicholas Kristof, New York Times He was freed with the help of the judge who sentenced him. Now he’s fighting for prison reform Wesley Bruer and Dianne Gallagher, CNN Biden’s Private Prison Executive Order Doesn’t Undo Mass Incarceration Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, Truthout Private prisons aren’t uniquely heinous....

PM Stories Local Spending on Jails Tops $25 Billion in Latest Nationwide Data PEW ‘Much More Work To Be Done’: Advocates Call for More Action Against Private Prisons After Biden’s ‘First Step’ Executive Order Madeleine Carlisle, Time Local Jail Populations in the US on the Rise Again, State Prison Population Declines Level Off, as COVID Spreads Throughout the Prison System Vera Institute of Justice Inspector General: California prison transfers during coronavirus caused public health disaster at San Quentin Lisa Fernandez, KTVU Prison officials ignored warnings before inmate transfer that led to virus outbreak, watchdog says Kim Christensen, Richard Winton, and Anita Chabria, Los Angeles...

PM Stories Democrats Have No Excuse Not to Reform the Criminal Justice System Veronique de Rugy, Reason DOJ Pulls Trump Administration’s Harsh Charging And Sentencing Policy Ryan J. Reilly, HuffPost Justice Department Rescinds Trump-Era Memo Ordering Prosecutors To Seek Harshest Sentences CJ Ciaramella, Reason After Trump, Democrats set out on a mission to ‘repair the courts’ Sahil Kapur, NBC News Biden Is The First President To Openly Oppose The Death Penalty. He Can Help End It. Jessica Schulberg, HuffPost A Rush to Execute David Cole, New York Review of Books Report: Bureau of Prisons Withheld Information on Positive COVID-19 Tests Among Federal Execution Witnesses Michael Balsamo...