As President Obama calls for better data and Justice Department exposes Ferguson, trusted FBI count of ‘justifiable homicides’ omits 545 people per year in study An average of 545 people killed by local and state law enforcement officers in the US went uncounted in the country’s most authoritative crime statistics every year for almost a decade, according to a report released on Tuesday.
D.C. prosecutors have stopped sending DNA evidence to the city’s new state-of-the-art crime lab after they said they discovered errors in the way analysts determined whether a sample can be linked to a suspect or a victim.
Prosecutors have hired two outside DNA experts to review 116 cases, including rapes and homicides, and have been notifying defense attorneys.
In one federal case, prosecutors said, the D.C. lab concluded that a defendant’s DNA could have been on the magazine of a gun seized as evidence. But an expert who reviewed the data said the lab should have interpreted the results to mean that the defendant was not the source of the DNA.
In other cases, prosecutors said, the lab either understated or overestimated the likelihood that a particular person’s DNA was left at a crime scene.
Officials at the Department of Forensic Sciences, which is located in a $220 million facility that opened in 2012, defend their work and say disagreements among scientists in the field are not uncommon. The dispute has essentially created a standoff between the city-run lab and federal prosecutors in the nation’s capital.
U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. said that his office has been paying to send evidence for testing at outside labs and that so far an additional 102 cases have been farmed out. At the same time, independent experts are taking a fresh look at the cases analyzed by the District’s lab.
“To date, we have not found any evidence to suggest any wrongful conviction and have not acted to dismiss any cases,” Machen said in a statement. “However, in an abundance of caution, we are conducting a rigorous review of the analysis done in current and older cases to ensure that criminal defendants are treated fairly.”
Max M. Houck, director of the Department of Forensic Sciences, said that the lab follows the same protocols in place at many city and state labs across the country and that experts may disagree on how to interpret evidence. The lab has made recent improvements, he said, but he stands by the work done before those changes.
“This is an estimate — an estimate of probability,” said Houck, a former FBI supervisor who worked in the agency’s anthropology and trace evidence unit.
“The issue is that their experts would do the analysis differently. Differently isn’t wrong,” Houck said. “It’s like a financial planner doing a financial assessment of someone’s net worth in U.S. currency and in Japanese yen. They’re both correct, just different measurements.”
Houck said he could not explain why the outside experts sometimes reached very different conclusions, because he does not know which methods they used.
The issue involves the analysis of combinations of genetic material from more than one person — such as samples collected from weapons, cars or a victim’s body. The scientists try to tease out who left the DNA behind. Although TV dramas such as “CSI” make DNA testing look simple, experts said, such disputes are not uncommon and the industry does not have a single accepted method for interpreting DNA mixtures. John M. Butler, special assistant to the director for forensic science at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, based in Gaithersburg, Md., recently wrote a 600-page book on the topic.
“You can have the same data, and scientists at different labs — or even within the same lab — can interpret that data differently,” Butler said. “We are trying to help standardize things. We are in the process of working on that.”
Prosecutors said they first became concerned in September, when they asked an outside expert to look over the DNA evidence in an upcoming case, a practice they said is not uncommon. Tavon Barber was accused of two 2013 burglaries, prosecutors said. In one case, laptops and car keys were taken from a home while two people slept inside, and the thief used the keys to steal a car. In the other case, a robber woke a sleeping couple and sexually assaulted the woman while holding her husband at gunpoint.
The expert found errors in the interpretation of six pieces of evidence analyzed by the Department of Forensic Sciences, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. The biggest mistake involved the analysis of DNA found on the stolen car’s gearshift, prosecutors said. D.C. analysts looking at the evidence found that the car owner’s DNA could have been on the gearshift and said the chance that a randomly selected person had the same genetic traits was 1 in 3,290. The outside experts said the more accurate finding was 1 in 9. [MORE]
Taser International, one of the nation's largest suppliers of body cameras, has direct connections to some police chiefs who have been advocating on its behalf.
According to an AP report, the company is covering travel costs for cops that praise their products at international conferences. It's also hiring retired chiefs as consultants, after their cities sign contracts with Taser. After the police chief in Fort Worth, Texas obtained a contract with the company, he wrote one of their representatives an email, insisting that he deserved a raise. In Salt Lake City, the police department bypassed City Council approval to secure a contract with Taser and, in Albuquerque, Taser's connection to the police chief sparked an investigation by the city’s inspector general.
After the death of Michael Brown, body cameras became a staple of calls for police reform. President Obama proposed a $75 million effort to equip departments with the cameras, in an attempt to quell distrust of police. The move was supported by a number of liberals, but it was also adamantly supported by Taser International. According to aNation story by Raven Rakia, Taser has seen its stock price double since Michael Brown was killed. The company viewed Brown's murder as, " massive awareness campaign’ for police body cameras."
According to a 3-month Fusion investigation, body cameras can often benefit the police more than victims. It's clear that, sometimes, this benefit is also financial.
An all-white jury that includes a restaurant manager, several retirees and a social worker will hear the trial of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, which gets underway with opening statements on Wednesday.
The two-month-long jury selection process wrapped up on Tuesday when lawyers for both sides winnowed the pool to 10 women and eight men. They will form the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates who will hear a trial that may run into June.
Tsarnaev, 21, is charged with killing three people and injuring 264 with a pair of homemade bombs at the race's crowded finish line on April 15, 2013, and with fatally shooting a police officer three days later. If he is found guilty, the jury selected on Tuesday will determine whether to sentence him to death.
While the jurors' names are secret, some details about them can be gleaned from their answers to the in-person "voir dire" questioning that took place at U.S. District Court in Boston over the past few weeks.
The panel includes a male telecommunications engineer who was at Massachusetts General Hospital the day of the attack, a female legal secretary who said she believed Tsarnaev was guilty but would evaluate the case based on its evidence and a woman who works at an area school system who bought some merchandise with the "Boston Strong" logo that became the city's rallying cry after the attacks, according to a tally compiled by the Boston Globe.
Tsarnaev and his family immigrated to the United States from Russia's restive Chechnya region a decade before the attack. They settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just outside Boston.
The jury selection process began in early January when more than 1,350 potential jurors filled out questionnaires on their ties to the attack and their views on the death penalty. To be eligible to serve, candidates needed not to have formed a set opinion of Tsarnaev's guilt and to be willing to consider voting for execution if he was found guilty.
U.S. District Judge George O'Toole, defense lawyers and federal prosecutors huddled quietly in court on Tuesday as they winnowed the field of 75 provisionally qualified jurors. Each side had the opportunity to reject 23 candidates without giving a reason. [MORE]
Attorneys representing the mother and 8-year-old daughter of a man who was shot and killed after a confrontation with two Miami Gardens police officers last month filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday against the city and its former police chief asking for more than $20 million.
“We filed the suit because something had to be done,’’ said attorney Judd Rosen, of Goldberg and Rosen. “The family needs some justice.’’
Lavall Hall was killed at about 5 a.m. Feb. 15 after his mother called police to report that her son, whom she said was schizophrenic and bipolar, came at her with a broomstick handle.
According to police, officers Peter Ehrlich and Eddo Trimino fired their Tasers at Hall after he struck them with the metal end of a broomstick. After the Tasers had no effect, the officers chased Hall for about half a block and when Hall charged at Trimino, the officer fired five shots. Two bullets hit Hall: One hit his arm and the other was a deadly shot to the chest. [MORE]
The two New York City artists announced they were hitting the road together. One of the first stops of "The People's Champion Tour" will be a March 9 show at the Barrymore Theatre.
And with recent race-related police violence galvanizing activists across the country, the timing for such a politically charged show seems perfect.
"[Kweli and I] were talking about how the nation recently went through some very, very difficult things for people to confront," says Tech, 37, speaking about the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner on Staten Island last year, both of which led to nationwide protests. "We wanted to create a space where we could not only express frustration but also express hope that things will change."
Both rappers have spoken out publicly regarding police violence, and Kweli has joined protests in Ferguson and appeared on numerous radio and TV shows, becoming a de facto hip-hop spokesman.
But he's not just all talk. Kweli announced last month that his Ferguson Defense Fund has raised more than $112,000 to support activists protesting in Missouri -- far more than its $25,000 goal. The money will go toward community programs and grassroots organizing.
"The overly militarized police force in Ferguson has attempted to criminalize [the protesters] by harassing and throwing them in jail for exercising their right to peaceful protest," says Kweli in a statement about the fund's success. "We hope these funds help to empower."
Because so many hip-hop artists are people of color, Tech says rap lends itself to discussing social issues, especially race-related topics. He also says the rap form has an advantage when it comes to social commentary. "It enables [these discussions] because of the sheer volume of words, ideas and concepts in the songs."
Tech says his early experience as a battle MC helped him hone his onstage skills: "I'll have a loose plan [for my set], but if the crowd is really reacting to something, I can quickly switch it up and go with that," he says.
Tech says the Madison audience will hear his hits, like "You Never Know," a somber tale of love lost, and the dark, twisted narrative of "Dance with the Devil," as well as new songs from his forthcoming album Middle Passage.
Kweli will likely perform his anthem for self-improvement, "Get By," and a smattering of solo tracks from his hefty catalog, as well as some from the albums he made as part of Black Star (with Mos Def) and with DJ Hi Tek.
Tech says he and Kweli make music to raise awareness about how the past affects our present: "What we want to do is draw attention to what's going on in this country right now."
When informed about the recent reports of racial disparities in education, employment and incarceration that plague Dane County, Tech says he applauds the community's efforts to confront the issues.
"The most important step is recognizing that [a problem] exists," he says. "The problem with America is its inability to confront its hypocrisies from the past."
The United States Department of Justice confirmed what residents in the St. Louis metro area have long known: If you’re black in Ferguson, you have a greater chance of being stopped, searched, arrested, cited, and abused by police.
The department found that “Ferguson Police disproportionately stopped African-Americans for no reasonable suspicion, made arrests with no probable cause and used force disproportionately against blacks,” according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Of the 14 incidents where a police dog bit a person and there was racial information, 100 percent of the bitten were black. The Justice Department also reportedly uncovered evidence of racist emails within the police department.
These findings are intolerable. And they are not unique to Ferguson. In cities and towns across the United States, communities of color are under siege by their own police departments, as documented by ACLU affiliates in Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere.
We must find a way forward. Here in the St. Louis area, all of us as a community must first look back at the shooting of Michael Brown and the protests that followed. Darren Wilson, a white police officer who stated Mr. Brown looked like a “demon,” shot the unarmed teenager down in the street. And that officer was employed by a department that treated blacks unfairly and circulated racist “jokes.”
Only by looking back honestly at where we’ve been can we find our way towards fair policing.
Many individuals, organizations, elected officials, community leaders, and commissions are working to find solutions, both here in St. Louis and nationally. On Monday, the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing issued an ambitious set of recommendations. A common theme in both local and federal reform efforts is policing that returns to a model of “protect and serve.” Service encompasses the idea that those being served must be included in creating a solution based on mutual trust and respect.
The ACLU of Ohio worked in Cincinnati with the African-American community, police leaders, elected officials, civil rights and police misconduct lawyers, and police unions to collaboratively negotiate a model of community policing that respected community and individual rights while also giving police the tools to keep those communities safe.
We can do the same here in St. Louis and cities and towns across America.
If we fail to do so, our past of racial segregation and discrimination will continue to haunt us. The only difference now is that the “Whites Only” signs have been replaced by a “new Jim Crow” that demeans African-Americans through arrests, fines, and imprisonment.
The New York Police Department is the latest police agency planning to pay private license plate tracking corporation Vigilant Solutions for access to the company’s nationwide location database, according to a report in the New York Daily News and documents unearthed by Ars Technica's Cyrus Farivar. By contracting to access Vigilant's rapidly growing National Vehicle Location Service (NVLS), where police will find over two billion records of ordinary Americans’ movements, the NYPD may also sign on to some very questionable secrecy provisions found in the company’s terms of service agreement.
It's been very difficult to discern exactly which public agencies dip into and feed Vigilant's massive location tracking database, or how much police departments and federal law enforcement pay to access the treasure trove of sensitive information. It now appears as if that's in part because, as with the high-tech cell phone tracking Stingray tool, agencies that contract with Vigilant are asked to keep mum on the details of their arrangements.
Ars Technica reports:
Vigilant requires that its licensees—law enforcement agencies—not talk publicly about its LPR database. According to the 2014 edition of its terms and conditions: "This prohibition is specifically intended to prohibit users from cooperating with any media outlet to bring attention to LEARN or LEARN-NVLS."
An update to the terms, identified by Ars' Farivar, is even stricter:
You agree not to use proprietary materials or information in any manner that is disparaging. This prohibition is specifically intended to preclude you from cooperating or otherwise agreeing to allow photographs or screenshots to be taken by any member of the media without the express consent of LEARN-NVLS. You also agree not to voluntarily provide ANY information, including interviews, related to LEARN products or its services to any member of the media without the express written consent of LEARN-NVLS.
The demand that cops don't discuss surveillance technology with members of the media absent Vigilant's permission likely can't be obeyed by officials unless they want to risk running afoul of open records laws, which don't provide an exemption for records corporations would like to keep secret from the public.
But the demand is indicative of a truly disturbing pattern emerging in the United States. Local law enforcement obtains federal grants to contract with shadowy surveillance corporations. Those corporations (or the FBI) demand that the law enforcement agencies who buy or contract to use spy technology do not discuss the tools publicly. The technologies in question are highly controversial, largely because they succeed not by targeting specific people suspected of wrongdoing, but by sweeping up the sensitive information of potentially millions of people accused of no crime. The public largely remains in the dark about local law enforcement's use of these tools, meaning legislators don't have the information they need to make laws to govern the new technology, and courts can't rule on the legality of the surveillance.
This is the case with cell site simulator technology manufactured by the Harris Corporation—the stingray—and it appears to be the case with license plate tracking technology sold or leased by Vigilant Solutions.
Private industry and the police are winning big through these secretive arrangements. The taxpayer—and her rights not to be warrantlessly tracked by the cops—loses big time. State legislatures and congress need to step up to the plate to deal with the menace of secret, dragnet surveillance. New technology shouldn't translate into the demise of the gold standard of American criminal investigations, the probable cause warrant.
Unless the cops have a good reason to believe you're up to no good, they shouldn't be tracking you or your phone calls. Unfortunately, in part because of this unprecedented private-public secrecy regime, you are being tracked, even if you aren't suspected of a crime.
The first batch of experimental Ebola vaccine from phamaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was due to arrive in Liberia on Friday, providing a boost to public health officials hopeful to stem the spread of the disease, which has killed more than 8,000 people to date.
GSK sent an initial shipment of 300 vials of vaccine ahead of the rollout of a mass clinical trial. Health care workers in the country to help care for Ebola patients are expected to be among the first to receive the drug. The disease has killed hundreds of doctors and nurses in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea — the three worst hit Ebola-affected countries — taking a severe toll on the health care systems of West Africa.
Sierra Leone has seen the most cases of the virus, but Liberia leads the three in number of deaths at 3,605, according to latest World Health Organization (WHO) figures. The disease spread quickly this summer through the country's capital Monrovia, where poverty and lack of sanitation helped quicken transmission.
GSK said Friday’s delivery would be just the beginning. Researchers hope to enroll up to 30,000 people in the trial, a third of whom would get GSK's candidate vaccine. The rest will serve as a control group to gauge the effectiveness of the drug.
The vaccine arrives at a crucial time in the fight against Ebola, with health officials fearing that the April-May rainy season will hamper efforts to provide medical relief to remote regions.
After a 2007 report showed that Iowa had the nation's highest disparity for sending blacks to prison, state lawmakers took a novel step: They passed a law requiring analysts to draft "racial-impact statements" on any proposals to create new crimes or tougher penalties. The governor at the time said the statements would be "an essential tool" to understand how minority communities might be affected before any votes are cast. A review by The Associated Press shows that the first-in-the-nation law appears to be having a modest effect, helping to defeat some legislation that could have exacerbated disparities and providing a smoother path to passage for measures deemed neutral or beneficial to minorities.
In a Democracy Now! and Pacifica Radio Archives exclusive, we air a newly discovered recording of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. On December 7, 1964, days before he received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, King gave a major address in London on segregation, the fight for civil rights and his support for Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. The speech was recorded by Saul Bernstein, who was working as the European correspondent for Pacifica Radio. Bernstein’s recording was recently discovered by Brian DeShazor, director of the Pacifica Radio Archives.
California’s top digital cop told an assembled crowd of law enforcement, civil libertarians, and concerned citizens that the “possibilities are limitless” when it comes to using facial recognition to solve crimes.
[JURIST] Arizona Governor Doug Ducey [campaign website] on Thursday signed legislation that will require all Arizona High School students to take and pass the US Citizenship test before they are able to graduate, beginning in the 2016-17 school year. Supporters from the Arizona State Legislature [official website] introduced the American Civics Act [HB 2064] in an effort to increase civics education and basic government knowledge, the deficiency of which House Majority Leader Steve Montenegro [official website] says is "alarming" based on findings in a federal study. However, opponents of the new law believe other more efficient ways to teach students US government principles might exist. Opponents also express skepticism over the fact that the bill was passed subsequent to a court order forcing Arizona to repay schools for funding that was cut off years ago during the recession. Congressman Juan Mendez [official website] expressed his opposition, stating:
In the midst of a budget crisis, after we purposely underfunded our public schools, we rush this piece of legislation through in the first week even before we've addressed the investment the courts have ordered us to [pay] to our public schools.
Arizona will be the first state requiring [Guardian report] students to pass a test before graduating high school. [MORE]
Attorneys for four death-row inmates on Monday proceeded in a challenge [JURIST report] to an Ohio law [text, HB 663] by filing a motion [text, PDF] for a preliminary injunction. HB 663 is a measure providing for the confidentiality of entities involved in the manufacture of drugs for use in capital punishment by lethal injection, and of the persons involved in executing a sentence of capital punishment. Ohio Governor John R. Kasich [official profile] signed the bill into law [press release, PDF] last year, but it is set to go into effect in late March. In the motion, the plaintiff's claim that the law is "an intentional effort by the State to censor and silence a specific message," namely the half of the capital punishment debate opposed to the death penalty, which they claim is a violation of the First Amendment [text]. The plaintiffs claim that because those who willingly choose to participate in lethal injection executions will be granted anonymity, the successes that were previously enjoyed by groups advocating against the death penalty will become non-existent as it will insulate them "from any further speech that might dissuade them from participating in lethal injection executions." Proponents of HB 663 argue that anonymity is necessary to protect those entities from public reprisal for their part in the production of lethal-injection drugs. [MORE]
A request to St. Louis County Judge Maura McShane for a new grand jury review of the case against Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for the fatal shooting of teenager Michael Brown has been denied [press release]. The request was made early in January by the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) [official website] after evidence was released [JURIST report] showing why the grand jury declined to indict Wilson. The LDF's request alleged that the initial grand jury trial was insufficient due to errors by Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch, including allowing a witness to provide false testimony and providing erroneous legal instructions to grand jurors. The letter [text, PDF] in response to the request, sent January 12, stated that the judge was prohibited from considering the request. The LDF announced their intention to seek further clarification into the matter. [MORE]
Fast food workers opened another front in their struggle with McDonald’s on Thursday, when 10 former employees of a Virginia-based franchise sued the company for allegedly violating their civil rights.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court, the plaintiffs allege that both McDonald’s and one of its franchisees violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by subjecting employees to “rampant racial and sexual harassment.” The alleged abuse occurred at three McDonald’s restaurants in Virginia, all owned by the franchisee Soweva Corporation.
According to the complaint, managers called their employees epithets such as “dirty Mexican,” “bitch” and “ghetto.” The lawsuit also says managers “inappropriately touched female employees on their legs and buttocks; sent female employees sexual pictures; and solicited sexual relations from female employees.” Black employees were disciplined for minor infractions that white employees were allowed to get away with and fired shortly after the franchisee had hired more white workers, according to the suit.
“Being a good worker didn’t matter,” said Katrina Stanfield, one of the plaintiffs, during a Thursday conference call with reporters. “I was fired for being black."
Workers approached the local chapter of the NAACP for assistance “after facing months of racial harassment, abuse, and intimidation,” said Rev. Kevin Chandler, president of the South Boston-Halifax NAACP chapter. That NAACP chapter then reached out to Fight for $15, a labor group that is behind a series of nationwide strikes in the fast food industry.
The fast food workers campaign, which is demanding an industry-wide wage floor of $15 per hour and the right to form a union, has previously backed worker lawsuits against McDonald’s alleging systemic wage theft. Fight for $15 announced on Thursday that it is also launching a national hotline for McDonald’s employees to report instances of harassment and discrimination.
The Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs has also joined with the plaintiffs to provide pro bono legal work, the group announced on Thursday.
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