Report: Inhumane Tennessee Authorities Have Repeatedly Violated Their Own Execution Protocols Since 2018

From [HERE] An independent investigation into Tennessee’s execution practices has found that the state repeatedly failed to follow its own protocols in performing seven executions and preparing for an eighth between 2018 and 2022. Governor Bill Lee (pictured) commissioned the investigation in May 2022, shortly after he called off the execution of Oscar Smith “[d]ue to an oversight in preparation for lethal injection.” The report, which was publicly released on December 28, 2022, found that the same oversight that occurred in the leadup to Smith’s execution – failure to test the lethal-injection drugs for endotoxins – had also occurred in the preparations for the seven previous executions. 

The investigation report, authored by former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton, examined all executions in Tennessee since 2018, when the state last revised its execution protocol. During that time, two people were executed by lethal injection; five were executed by electrocution, but the state prepared lethal injection drugs in case they changed their choice of execution method; and one execution was called off after preparations had already begun. The report found that the state never provided a copy of the protocol to the compounding pharmacy that provided the execution drugs. The execution drugs were required to be tested for potency, sterility, and endotoxin contamination. The endotoxin test was only conducted in one of the eight instances. In one case, potency tests were also not performed, and in another, one drug failed potency testing. “The fact of the matter is not one TDOC employee made it their duty to understand the current Protocol’s testing requirements and ensure compliance," the report said. Many of these failures had already been documented in a May 25, 2022 report by The Tennessean. 

"[Tennessee Department of Correction] leadership viewed the lethal injection process through a tunnel-vision, result-oriented lens rather than provide the necessary guidance and counsel to ensure that Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol was thorough, consistent, and followed," the report concludes. It offers several recommendations, including hiring an employee or consultant with a pharmaceutical background to “provide guidance in connection with the lethal injection process,” providing the execution protocol to the drug supplier, and establishing a team to review testing data before each execution. 

Governor Lee, in a statement, identified four steps his administration will take in response to the report: “1. Make staffing changes at the department’s leadership level. 2. Hire and onboard a permanent TDOC commissioner in January 2023. 3. New department leadership will revise the state’s lethal injection protocol, in consultation with the Governor’s office and the Tennessee Attorney General’s office. 4. New department leadership will review all training associated with the revised protocol and make appropriate operational updates.”

Court Recommends New Trial for Jewish Death Row Prisoner, Trial Judge’s Virulent Hatred of Jews Violated his Rights

From [HERE] A Dallas County judge has recommended that the conviction and death sentence of a Jewish death-row prisoner be overturned because his trial was poisoned by the virulent anti-Semitic bigotry of the Texas judge who presided over his case.

In a scathing 42-page set of fact findings issued on December 13, 2022, Judge Lela Lawrence May (pictured, left) recommended that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) grant a new trial to Randy Halprin (pictured, right), finding that former Dallas County Judge Vickers Cunningham “harbored actual, subjective bias” against Halprin at the time of his trial because Halprin is Jewish. May credited the testimony of numerous witnesses that Cunningham subscribed to a White Christian Nationalist ideology, held long-standing bigoted views against Blacks, Hispanics, gays, Catholics, and Jews, and “planned to ensure convictions and death sentences for [Halprin and his] co-defendants in order to advance his personal interests” in becoming Dallas District Attorney.

Halprin is one of the so-called “Texas 7” who escaped from a maximum-security Texas prison in December 2000 and subsequently robbed a sporting goods store. Dallas police officer Aubrey Hawkins was killed responding to the robbery. While several of the escapees fired shots, Halprin has consistently maintained that he opposed bringing guns to the robbery, did not carry a gun, and did not fire any shots. He testified at trial, “before the robbery, I even told [the others], I’m not going to go in and carry a gun, and there was a little argument. … And so I told them I wasn’t going to pull a gun and they said, fine, just gather clothes, grab a shopping cart, and gather clothes.”

Halprin was sentenced to death under Texas’ controversial “law of parties,” which allows defendants to be convicted and punished based upon the actions and intent of others, if the defendant played even a small role in a crime that resulted in a person’s death. Four of the “Texas 7” have been executed, one committed suicide, and a sixth, Patrick Murphy, who remained in a car in the parking lot and did not participate in the robbery, remains on death row after the Texas Board of Pardons denied his application for clemency.

While Halprin’s appeal from the denial of his initial habeas corpus challenge to his conviction and death sentence was pending in federal court, evidence became available that for the first time publicly documented Judge Cunningham’s bigotry. The revelations came to light in 2018 when Cunningham was running for Dallas County Commissioner, following an earlier failed attempt to become Dallas District Attorney. During the race for commissioner, Cunningham’s brother Bill publicly disclosed that Vickers Cunningham had established a living trust for his children, conditioned upon their marrying a white Christian of the opposite sex. His brother also asserted that Cunningham was a long-time bigot who had frequently used the n-word to describe Black people, often referring to cases involving Black defendants as “TND” or “Typical N****r Deals.” 

After further investigation, Halprin’s lawyers uncovered evidence from Cunningham’s relatives, court employees, and political campaign workers that they also had heard him talk about “GD Jews,” “filthy Jews,” and “f***ing Jews.” The investigation also revealed that Judge Cunningham — who presided over the trials of the six living members of the Texas Seven — had referred to the men with various racial, homophobic, and anti-Semitic slurs, describing them as “the Mexican, the queer, and the Jew” and vowing to “get them all the death penalty.” He also specifically referred to Mr. Halprin as “the k***” after the trial. Three of the Texas Seven who were tried in front of Cunningham and subsequently were executed were Latino.

With this new evidence, Halprin filed a new federal habeas petition in May 2019 seeking to overturn his conviction and death sentence. Dallas prosecutors responded in June 2019 by seeking a warrant for his execution, which Judge May issued in July. Halprin then filed his judicial bias claim in state court and sought a stay of execution to allow him to pursue that claim. On October 4, 2019 — six days before he was scheduled to die — the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay and returned the case to the Dallas court to resolve his claim.

On remand, prosecutors agreed to submit the case to the court based on witness affidavits, after which Judge Mays found that “Judge Vickers Cunningham possessed anti-Semitic prejudice against Halprin which violated Halprin’s constitutional right to a trial in a fair tribunal, equal protection, and free exercise of religion.” The “only remedy” for Halprin, Mays wrote, is “a new fair trial.” However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed that ruling and returned the case to the trial court for an evidentiary hearing, saying that live testimony was necessary before the court could conclude that Cunningham was biased.

At that hearing, Halprin presented evidence spanning decades of Cunningham’s repeated use of bigoted racial, religious, ethnic, and homophobic slurs. Judge Mays found that credible testimony had established that Cunningham exhibited a pattern of anti-Semitism that “was fully formed by the time he was old enough to drive,” and that he “took pleasure in disparaging Jews and abusing people of color throughout his life.” She also credited testimony that Cunningham continued to refer to Halprin and others of the Texas Seven with slurs during the course of his unsuccessful campaign for Dallas District Attorney after the trials and found no credible innocuous reason to explain Cunningham’s repeated reference to Halprin as “the Jew,” “Jew Halprin,” and “Randy the Jew.” 

Mays concluded that Cunningham had “viewed the Texas 7 trial as a means of advancing his political career and agenda which included asserting White supremacy over Blacks and Latinos in Dallas County.” Mays recommended that the TCCA, which retained jurisdiction over the case, vacate Halprin’s conviction and sentence, finding that Cunningham’s bias violated Halprin’s rights to due process, equal protection of the law, and free exercise of religion.

Illinois Ct Allows Racist Cash Bail System to Remain in Place [there's No Empirical Evidence Pretrial Detention Increases Safety- Only Proof it Keeps Blacks in Greater Confinement, its true purpose]

Profit Over People: Primer on U.S. Cash Bail Systems

WHATS WRONG NHGR? You Don’t Have $10,000 in the bank to post bail? From [HERE] The Supreme Court of Illinois Saturday put a hold on the controversial Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today (SAFE-T) Act, finding that the pretrial release provisions under the act violated the Illinois Constitution.

The SAFE-T Act is a criminal justice reform law impacting many aspects of the criminal justice system such as policing, pretrial, sentencing and correction. Notable provisions include a body camera mandate for police officers and increased transparency in custodial death cases.

More than 60% of defendants are detained before trial because they can’t afford to post bail, according to a study finding that the impact falls most heavily on minorities and low-income people.

Nationally, the average bail amount for felonies is $10,000, according to the report released Thursday by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The report is titled The Civil Rights Implications of Cash Bail.

A total of 631,000 people are held in jails every day, and 74% are awaiting trial, the report said.

Research suggests that people of color may be subjected to higher bail amounts and are more likely to be perceived as dangerous during bail hearings, according to the report.

One study, for example, found that when monetary bail was set for Black defendants, it was in significantly greater amounts than for white defendants.

Research also shows that Black and Hispanic defendants have higher rates of pretrial detention than white defendants and are more likely to have financial conditions imposed.

Pretrial detention has collateral consequences, such as job losses, housing insecurity, family problems and an increased likelihood of engaging in future criminal conduct, the report noted. Those consequences have led to increasing concerns, especially given the lack of empirical research showing that pretrial detention increases public safety. [MORE]

65 counties sued to stop the law from going into effect on January 1. Kankakee County Judge Thomas Cunnington of the 21st Judicial Circuit heard a consolidated lawsuit on the matter. Kankakee County State’s Attorney Jim Rowe argued that the legislation was unconstitutional since it violated the separation of powers clause of the Illinois Constitution and amendments to section 9, Article I of the Constitution were not put to a vote on the ballot. The judge ruled in favor of the argument, which means that bail reform and pre-trial release provisions cannot go into effect. 

Governor of Illinois J.B. Pritzker said that Cunnington’s ruling was a “setback for the principles we fought to protect through the passage of the SAFE-T Act.”

The Supreme Court of Illinois upheld Cunnington’s ruling in an emergency supervisory order, stating:

The administration of the justice system is an inherent power of the courts upon which the legislature may not infringe and the setting of bail falls within that administrative power, the appropriateness of bail rests with the authority of the court and may not be determined by legislative fiat…..the pretrial release provisions do violate this separation of powers principle underlying our system of governance by depriving the courts of their inherent authority to administer and control their courtrooms and to set bail.

Illinois House Leader Jim Durkin called the ruling a “victory for the often neglected victims of crime and the men and women of law enforcement who wear the badge every day.”

The SAFE-T Act is controversial because it abolishes cash bail. Non-violent defendants no longer must post bail before trial. Exceptions to this include defendants deemed a risk to public safety or a risk of escaping. Republican lawmakers and law enforcement stakeholders argued that the law will lead to a rise in crime. Democratic lawmakers and advocates for criminal justice reform argue that abolishing cash bail is necessary to prevent discrimination against the poor.

NO CHARGES from White Liberal DA After 5 LA Cops Murdered Frederick Holder: Black Man Shot 30X at Close Range after Inarticulable Stop. Cops Claim Lighter (found under the car) Looked Like a Gun

From [HERE] and [HERE] The office of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón announced this week that it would not charge deputies Christopher Conger, Javier Fierros, and Jackie Rojas for shooting and killing Frederick Holder on June 23, 2021. Holder, a 28-year-old unarmed Black man, was driving a box truck and stopped at a red light on a freeway on-ramp in Norwalk, California.

The office said in a statement to Knock LA, “We know that this is not the news that the friends and family of Mr. Holder wanted to hear today. Their loss remains immeasurable. We can assure the public that the investigation was extensive and our analysis was thorough. We do not take these decisions lightly. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is a very high standard. This declination does not mean that they have been absolved of any moral or civil responsibility.”

In their analysis, the DA’s office writes that, “the deputies acted in lawful self-defense and defense of a third party when they fired their weapons, reasonably believing, based on a totality of the circumstances, that deadly force was necessary to defend against a deadly threat.”

The deputies involved include Christopher Conger, Javier Fierros, and Jackie Rojas — all of which are still active members of the LA County Sheriff’s Department.

The deputies appear to have violated several departmental policies during the shooting. They failed to wear body cameras, engaged in a pursuit outside of procedure, and opened fire on an occupied vehicle on a crowded freeway on-ramp. Conger, Fierros, and Rojas are still on duty.

Just after 9:50 AM on June 23, 2021, a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter operator requested a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) unit to attempt to stop a white Ford utility box truck Holder was driving. The helicopter also stated over dispatch that he was monitoring the vehicle for reckless driving after a call from the LAPD’s Southwest Station. The helicopter operator said the truck was “not wanted” for anything, but that he would continue to pursue it from the air because the tailgate was open.

The police have failed to explain exactly what facts tend to show that the Black man was driving erratically, recklessly or impaired. Such facts might be for instance, illegal lane changing, swerving, driving at inconsistent speeds, starting and stopping and facts indicating that pedestrians or other drivers were affected. The so-called 4th Amendment prevents police from stopping drivers without reasonable and articulable suspicion that the motorist had been or was engaged in unlawful activity - insofar as such “rights” are applied to white citizens in the free range prison. See Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 661 (1979). Driving described as “erratic,” “reckless” or “impaired” are legal conclusions that must be supported by actual, articulable facts. Without more facts, the initial stop appears to be unlawful.

Christopher Conger said in a statement that his partner, deputy Steven Douma, radioed to Conger that he was going to initiate a felony traffic stop. [However, no felony had been committed]. It is against LASD’s policy to pursue vehicles for reckless driving. The department manual of policies and procedures states that:

A pursuit shall not be initiated or continued: Once it has been determined that the driver of a vehicle is refusing or failing to yield and the only known reason for the intended stop is:

• An infraction or misdemeanor crime (including California Vehicle Code (CVC) violations), except as provided above;

• Any crime not classified as a serious felony, as described in this section; or

• A possible grand theft, vehicle.

Four LASD vehicles surrounded the truck on a residential street. According to the department, the deputies used a public announcement system to instruct Holder to exit the truck. He drove away slowly south on Piuma Avenue and was pursued by deputies. He drove onto the freeway on-ramp and merged with traffic stopped at a red light.

Deputies parked their vehicles behind Holder and exited carrying firearms. None of them were wearing body cameras, despite the department requiring the activation of body-worn cameras during vehicle stops and pursuits. According to the DA’s report, Conger had placed his own dash camera inside his vehicle.

The video shows Conger, Fierro, and Rojas briefly speaking from behind an LASD sedan, then proceeding toward Holder’s truck.

LASD policy explicitly states that “firearms should not be discharged at a stationary or moving vehicle, the occupants of a vehicle, or the tires of a vehicle unless a person in the vehicle is imminently threatening a Department member or another person present with deadly force by means other than the moving vehicle.” Furthermore, internal LASD documents state that “shooting at a vehicle is inherently dangerous and almost always ineffective.”

Department policy also states that once a pursued vehicle has stopped, deputies must develop a tactical plan, utilize “less lethal” weapons, and assign designated shooters as well as fire discipline and shooting backdrop — meaning the amount of times one fires and what is behind the target of fire, respectively.

Deputies Conger, Fierros, and Rojas did not do any of this.

In his statement, Conger says he was within three feet of the passenger door when he saw Holder “sitting in the driver’s seat. He was looking to his left — over his left shoulder out the driver’s side window, and he was holding his right hand up against his chest holding what I believe[d] to be a small pistol.”

Fierros said that Holder held the object across his chest with his right hand and pointed it at him. The item Conger and his colleagues say they believed was a gun is a butane lighter.

When Conger saw Holder with the lighter in his hands, he yelled, “Gun! Gun! Gun!” and fired ten rounds from a .223 rifle at Holder. Fierros says he “backpedaled” and fired at Holder until his weapon was empty. He then reloaded his weapon and fired some more — because, he says, he heard “other rounds” and thought Holder might be shooting at him. Fierros estimates he fired 19 times. Rojas did not give a voluntary statement.

COPS CLAIM THEY IMMEDIATELY MOVED EVIDENCE ON THE SCENE. Fierros said that he approached the truck and opened the driver door. Deputy Jose Pimentel said he stepped into the cabin and saw what looked like the butt of a gun near Holder. When he picked it up, he realized it was too light to be a firearm. For some reason, he moved the lighter from where it was and put it underneath the truck. Fierros believes (?) he was present when this happened. Three sergeants who responded to the scene had body-worn cameras and captured this on video. But the view is obstructed and does not show where in the cabin the torch lighter was located, according to the DA’s report. [Of course if there was no lighter at all cops would have no defense. As ridiculous as it sounds, the lighter must be in Holder’s hand and be pointed at the cop for there to be an imminent threat of danger to the officer. For what reason would police be moving material evidence around a crime scene? If a cop lied one time why would you trust anything he says? Nevertheless, the white DA and white media believe and parrot whatever police tell them especially when it comes to murdering Black people - if you believe “Authority” can be used somehow to help humanity then you are indeed a plaything in the hands of authorities and on the wrong website].

The deputies said they tried to provide medical aid but stopped when they saw Holder appeared to be deceased.

The gunshot wounds left Holder unrecognizable to his family. Earlier this year, Knock LA obtained the autopsy photos of Frederick Holder. Sources said the wounds to his body indicated he was shot at a range of no more than 10 feet with an assault rifle, blowing off his mouth.

His sister, Hali Holder, said “His face was blown off, mouth, teeth, tongue,” his sister said of the aftermath of the deadly shooting. Photos show chunks of Holder’s face and body missing.

The Holder family and supporters held numerous rallies on behalf of justice for Frederick, urging the district attorney to follow through with charges on the officers involved in his shooting death.

But the family says they have received pushback from former Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who refused to meet with them and even called them “fools” during a community forum event in Feb. 2022, where Holder’s sister called Villanueva’s deputies out.

Villanueva and Garcon are democrats.

The family said it took police over a week to inform them of Holder’s death.

NYPD Cops Said Khiel Coppin Threatened them w/an Imaginary Gun but In Reality the Black Teen’s Hands Were Up When Cops Shot Him 20 Times and Only Possessed a Comb. 15 Yrs Later NYC Settles $3M Claim

ROTTEN TO THE CORE. GENERALLY BLACK VOTER TURNOUT IN LIBERAL NYC IS GREAT AND WHITE LIBERALS AND HUNDREDS OF BLACK ROLEBOTIC AUTHORITIES REPRESENT BLACKS AND DOMINATE ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT IN NYC. WTF DO THEY GET FOR THEIR VOTE IF LAW ABIDING BLACKS CAN BE STOPPED, SEARCHED, DETAINED AND MURDERED BY PUBLIC MASTERS ANYTIME? AS STATED BY FUNKTIONARY,

voting power – an oxymoron. 2) a transitory form of illusory power. 3) the appearance of power without the juice.“

From [HERE] Fifteen years after their loved one’s death, the family of a Black teen shot and killed by New York police has reached a multi-million-dollar settlement with the city.

Officials called the boy’s death “tragic” and said deciding to settle was “in the best interest of all parties.”

On Thursday, Dec. 21, the city of New York agreed to pay the estate of Khiel Coppin $3 million in damages after he was killed by police in 2007, according to PIX 11.

Khiel Coppin was killed by New York City police in 2007.

The 18-year-old was shot on Nov. 12, 2007, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of central Brooklyn by police officers who hallucinated that he was charging toward them with a gun.

Officers fired 20 bullets at Coppin, finding out he didn’t have a firearm later. In his hand, the young man had a hairbrush.

Within the 17-page lawsuit, the mother says her eldest son was unarmed and had his hands in the air when the police shot him.

In 2015, Flushing attorney Andrew Plasse filed a federal civil lawsuit for $40 million against the city on behalf of Denise Elliott-Owens, Coppin’s mother.

“Many citizens felt there was no rational excuse for shooting 20 times an unarmed man with his hands up in the air and then handcuffing him on the ground after he was seriously injured,” the complaint states.

The claim further states that because of the overwhelming “public outcry” over her son’s death, police retaliated against the woman’s other son, Na’im.

Seven years after Coppin’s death, Na’im was shot at 18 times on Aug. 31, 2014, by police near the same apartment where his brother was killed. One bullet struck his torso. The brother survived for a week before succumbing to his wounds on Sept. 6.

Both of Elliott-Owens’ sons’ deaths sparked public outrage, leading to demonstrations from several criminal justice advocates, who claimed the police purposely withheld the video of the fatal shooting to protect the officers, the Daily News reported. [? where is the video?]

In 2017, the city actually won a summary judgment to have the case dismissed — after the case was stuck at the state level for 10 years.

In 2020, the state appeals panel reversed that decision, deciding a jury should review the evidence and determine if they believe the officers violated Coppin’s civil rights by using excessive force.

One appeals panel member was Sylvia Hinds-Radix has been appointed to be the city’s corporation counsel.

Elliott-Owens has also changed her representation. Wale Mosaku is now her lawyer.

Reports say in the first incident, Elliott-Owens had called Interfaith Medical Center’s mobile crisis team seeking assistance for her “mentally disturbed son” around noon on the day of his death. Coppin had a history of mental illness, and according to the Daily News, he had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication.

Six and half hours later, the medical center’s crisis team finally arrived, but the young man was not at home. Because he was not there, the team left. Coppin returned after, and the mother called the police.

The mom said, “If I knew that that would have been the outcome, maybe I would have proceeded another way.”

When the police arrived, they saw Coppin, who yelled out that he had a weapon, prompting the police to act.

The NYPD spokesperson Nick Paolucci said the officers erroneously made a “split-second” decision, which resulted in the death.

“When officers responded to a mother’s call for help, they were confronted by what they believed to be a lethal threat and had to make split-second decisions,” Paolucci stated. 

“Officers testified that Mr. Coppin lunged at them with a knife, yelled that he had a gun, and reached for that weapon in the bulge of his sweatshirt, despite repeated orders to raise his hands,” he said in a statement. “While this incident ended tragically, a lower court agreed that the actions of these officers were justified under the circumstances. An appellate court, however, reinstated claims against the officers, saying a jury should weigh the evidence.”

“We have carefully reviewed this tragic case and have determined that this agreement was in the best interest of all parties,” the spokesperson reiterated.

Elliott-Owen said she believes the settlement was “just a legal tactic.”

“It still doesn’t bring back my son,” she said. “At the end of the day, it’s just money. You still have a loss.”

White Cop in Tampa Fired for Dragging Handcuffed Black Woman to Jail Entrance. No Charges b/c Police are Authorized to Initiate Unprovoked Attacks on Citizens. How Did Cops Acquire this Power?

From [HERE] A Tampa police officer has been fired after dragging a woman on the ground following an arrest, the department said in a statement.

The Tampa police department fired officer Gregory Damon following an internal investigation that determined he violated multiple departmental policies while booking a suspect into the Orient Road Jail on Nov. 17.

“Professionalism is not only expected, it is demanded, in every encounter our officers have with the public, regardless of the arrestee being uncooperative or unpleasant in return. As law enforcement officers, we are held to a higher standard,” said Interim Police Chief Lee Bercaw.

Body camera footage and surveillance footage has captured the incident.

Tampa Police Department fired officer Gregory Damon following an internal investigation that determined he violated multiple departmental policies while booking an inmate into the Orient Road Jail on November 17.

According to officials, Tampa police responded to a call regarding an individual sleeping outside the Tampa Family Health Center and refusing to leave despite requests made by employees.

Officers arrested the woman, who had previously been provided a warning for trespassing on the same property the month prior.

“Damon took the individual by the arm, dragging her from the vehicle to the entrance of the jail where he then buzzed the door entrance, prompting two deputies to come outside and assist with raising the individual from the ground and beginning the jail intake process,” the department said in a statement.

It continued, “Rather than remaining professional, Damon himself made rude and derogatory comments to the arrestee.”

The internal investigation found that Damon violated departmental policies related to searching, transporting, response to resistance, treatment of people in custody, standard of conduct, and more.

In 2013, Tampa revised its policy on handling uncooperative people following a similar incident, according to the department.

It added specific language that advised officers “that dragging an individual who is uncooperative is never an appropriate practice and instead, the correct procedure would be to request assistance from the booking staff.”

The department said that detention deputies are required to help lift someone from the transport vehicle and secure them in a restraining chair to be rolled into the intake area.

Tampa Police Department fired officer Gregory Damon following an internal investigation that determined he violated multiple departmental policies while booking an inmate into the Orient Road Jail on November 17.

“This former officer’s actions were unacceptable and are not tolerated at this department, which is why we acted swiftly in initiating an internal investigation, relieving him of his duties, and ultimately terminating his employment,” the department said in a statement.

Pew Study Shows that Since the Plandemic Mostly White Landlords Made Sizable Rent Increases in Liberal Metro Areas (DC/NYC/LA/Boston/Chicago/Atlanta) and Mostly Non-White Tenants Struggle to Pay It

From [HERE] 60% of Americans say they’re very concerned about the cost of housing, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in October. Rising housing costs have hit renters hard during this span – and prices have continued to soar over the past year, making rent control and other related proposals prominent issues in the recent midterm elections.

Here are some key facts about U.S. renters and the problems they have faced with housing affordability during the COVID-19 pandemic, based primarily on a Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

Nearly 46 million households rented their homes in 2021. Renters accounted for more than a third of all households in the U.S., while homeowners accounted for nearly two-thirds, according to data from the Census Bureau’s 2021 American Housing Survey (AHS). The number of renters in 2021 was higher than a decade ago.

Relatively large shares of Americans who are younger, Black or Hispanic rented during the pandemic. A third of renting households were headed by someone under the age of 35; an additional 20% were ages 35 to 44, according to AHS data. The median age was 43 for renters in 2021, compared with 57 for homeowners. The median age of household heads overall was 53 that year.

Black and Hispanic adults made up a disproportionately large percentage of renters (21% each) compared with their overall shares of the U.S. population (12% and 19%, respectively). Still, the largest share of renters – half in 2021 – were non-Hispanic White.

A majority of renters lived with someone else, and two-bedroom arrangements were the most common. Household heads who rented were more likely to live with at least one other person than to live alone in 2021 (62% vs. 38%), according to AHS data. The largest share of renters who lived with other people (42%) were married couples living alone or with children or other family.

Among households who rented, 40% lived in two-bedroom housing, while about a quarter each lived in one-bedroom (27%) or three-bedroom accommodations (24%).

Renters tended to have much lower household incomes than homeowners. The median household income for renters was $41,000 in 2021, compared with $78,000 among homeowners. A majority of renters (57%) had annual household incomes of less than $50,000 that year.

The median monthly cost of rent alone increased 12% since before the pandemic, from $909 in 2019 to $1,015 in 2021, according to AHS data. By comparison, overall inflation was about 6% during this span.

The AHS estimates that about half of rental households (51%) spent $1,000 or more a month on rent in 2021 – up from 44% in 2019.

[MORE]

Renters in some metro areas faced especially sizable rent increases during the pandemic. Of the largest 15 metropolitan areas the Census Bureau’s AHS covers, eight saw increases of 10% or more in median monthly rent between 2019 and 2021. The median monthly cost of rent rose the most in Atlanta (17%), from $1,025 in 2019 to $1,200 in 2021.

Overall, the San Francisco metro area had the highest median monthly rent ($2,065) in 2021, followed by Los Angeles ($1,650), Washington, D.C. ($1,629) and Boston ($1,600). The New York City and Seattle metro areas were tied for the fifth-highest median monthly rent ($1,500).

Metropolitan areas were already seeing rent hikes before the COVID-19 outbreak. In 10 urban areas, median monthly rent increased 10% or more between 2017 and 2019. Riverside, California, and Phoenix, Arizona, saw the largest increases during that span (18%).

Some metropolitan renters reported housing inadequacies in 2021, when many Americans were spending more time at home. In the Houston and New York City metro areas, 14% of renter households said they had severely or moderately inadequate housing. (The AHS uses certain criteria – such as issues with plumbing, heating, electricity, wiring, upkeep or other problems – to classify this measure.) About one-in-ten renters in Dallas (11%) and 9% each in Boston and Washington said the same.

Some Americans struggled to pay rent early in the coronavirus outbreak. Around one-in-six U.S. adults (16%) said in an August 2020 Center survey that they had problems paying their rent or mortgage since the U.S. coronavirus outbreak started that February. Black (28%) and Hispanic (26%) adults were especially likely to report they struggled to pay for rent or a mortgage during this time; 11% of White adults said the same. Around a third of Americans with lower incomes (32%) also said they faced this issue.

Even before the pandemic, renters were spending substantial shares of their income on housing. In 2019, the median share of income that households who rent spent on their total monthly housing costs was 28%, according to AHS data.

Since much of renters’ household income already goes toward housing costs, rent increases can potentially push those at the lower ends of the income spectrum completely out of the market. A 2020 analysis from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that a $100 increase in median rent was associated with a 9% increase in the estimated homelessness rate – even after factoring in other relevant factors such as changes in wages and the unemployment rate.

While the federal government’s national eviction moratorium protected renters during earlier stages of the coronavirus outbreak, the policy has since ended, and eviction filings have reportedly risen in recent months. Other state- and city-wide pandemic-related tenant protections are now expiring in Los Angeles and Oregon. And in New York City, tenants in rent-stabilized apartments are facing rent increases.

DOJ Settles ‘Crime-free housing’ Case: Racist Landlords in Hesperia, CA Used Law to Evict Black Tenants Accused but Not Convicted of Crimes. Black Renters 4X More Likely to be Evicted than Whites

From [HERE] The US Justice Department on Wednesday filed what it is describing as a first-of-its-kind settlement in a racial discrimination case challenging a so-called “crime-free housing ordinance.”

The proposed consent decree was filed Wednesday in a lawsuit the Justice Department brought in 2019 against the central California city of Hesperia, alleging that the city’s ordinance violated the Fair Housing Act’s prohibitions on racial discrimination in housing access.

Hesperia continues to deny the allegations.

According to DOJ’s court filings, the 2015 ordinance instructed landlords to evict tenants accused of criminal conduct, even if those allegations have not resulted in an arrest or a conviction.

“As our complaint makes clear, Hesperia’s ordinance was a blatantly racially discriminatory solution to a problem that didn’t exist,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who leads the DOJ Civil Rights division, said on a press call Wednesday.

She noted under the program, Black renters were almost four times more likely to be evicted than White renters and Latino renters were 29% more likely to be evicted.

She said that some 2,000 jurisdictions across 48 states have enacted similar policies and that the new settlement sent a signal to other communities that they’d be held accountable if their housing policies violated anti-discrimination law.

“This landmark agreement is historic,” Clarke said. “It marks the Justice Department’s first settlement in a case challenge a crime-free ordinance and results in the full repeal of the program and nearly $1 million in monetary commitment.”

Last month, the city repealed the ordinance, which was previously amended in 2017 to make the program voluntary. According to the Justice Department, Hesperia and its co-defendants – the county of San Bernardino and the San Bernardino Sheriffs Department – have agreed to pay a $950,000 settlement.

It will compensate people who were harmed under the policy and will cover anti-discrimination training and other initiatives.

A lawyer for Hesperia said that the city’s move to resolve the case “was based solely on a sound financial decision on behalf of the citizens of the City.”

“At no time has the City admitted liability in this matter, and the City continues to vehemently deny all allegations contained within the complaint filed by the Department of Justice,” the lawyer, J. Pat Ferraris told CNN in an email.

According to Survey by the National Center for State Courts Americans' Confidence in Judiciary is in Steep Decline

From [HERE] From state courts up to the top of the federal system, Americans' confidence in the judicial system is falling fast. That was the grim takeaway from a recent survey by the National Center for State Courts (article available here.

The 2022 annual "State of the State Courts" survey released Wednesday also indicated public skepticism that state courts are living up to the promise of "equal justice to all," with responses showing a significant gulf between white people and people of color. 

According to the survey, the percentage of respondents expressing confidence in the federal court system dropped from 60% in 2021 to 57% this year, while confidence in state courts took a dive from 64% to 60%.

Looking at race and the Supreme Court, the poll found a 9-point dip in confidence among white voters. But for Black respondents, the drop-off was a 19 points.

In Manhattan, Liberal Authorities Convicted Blacks at a Rate 21X Greater than Whites Over the Past 2 Decades. Statewide, Blacks Account for 40% of Convictions Despite Being Only 14% of the Population

From [HERE] It has long been established that people of color — and especially Black people — are disproportionately criminalized, prosecuted, and incarcerated by the criminal legal system. When it comes to arrests, charges, convictions, and sentences, at every step, Black people are treated much more harshly than white people. But even though this reality is not new, just how unequal the system is across New York is still surprising:

In Manhattan — one of the wealthiest and least equal places in the country — courts convicted Black people of felonies and misdemeanors at a rate 21 times greater than that of white people over the past two decades. This disparity is the largest of any county in the state. 

WOW. IS IT REPUBLICANS FILLING THE PRISONS WITH BLACKS OR IS IT WHITE LIBERAL JUDGES AND PROSECUTORS AND THIER COMPLEMENTARY BLACK ROLEBOTS? IS RACISM WHITE SUPREMACY RELATED TO POLITICAL PARTY AFFILIATION?

This troubling statistic features prominently in a lawsuit filed recently by the New York Civil Liberties Union challenging the constitutionality of a ban on people with felony convictions serving on juries in Manhattan. The ban applies statewide, but the case focuses on Manhattan where the racial disparity is the most severe. As many as one quarter of all otherwise jury-eligible Black residents in Manhattan are barred from serving on juries because of a prior felony conviction. For Black men, the disenfranchisement is even more severe: the law likely disqualifies more than 40 percent of them from jury service.

For decades, political and law enforcement leaders have flooded Black neighborhoods with police, while also arresting Black people more frequently regardless of what neighborhood they’re in. Prosecutors then over-charge Black people compared to white people accused of the same crimes. 

This has resulted in racial disparities in felony conviction rates. These convictions, in turn, have devastating impacts on people’s ability to participate in society, secure a job, find a place to live, and get an education. But they also fuel a cycle of more racially-biased convictions.     

That’s because jury disenfranchisement not only shuts thousands of Black residents out of civic engagement, but it strips people of their right to be judged by a jury of their peers. A jury system that underrepresents Black New Yorkers inevitably leads to more convictions of Black people. 

Racial Disparities in Counties Across the State

This isn’t just a New York City problem. While in Brooklyn, the largest county in the state, Black people were convicted of felonies and misdemeanors at a rate of about seven times that of white people, a new NYCLU analysis of data from 2002-2019 shows that, in every single county in New York, Black people were arrested and convicted of offenses at disproportionate rates.

Schenectady County has a population of about 120,000 people, 97,000 of whom are white and about 9,000 of which are Black. In the past two decades, the county has convicted 3,000 Black people of felonies and 2,500 white people, despite the ten-fold difference in population. Black people in Schenectady are so over-criminalized that, in the last two decades alone, there is a felony conviction for every three Black residents in the county. In Albany County and Onondaga County, Black people are convicted of felonies at a rate 10 times that of white people.

Statewide, Black New Yorkers account for roughly 40 percent of misdemeanor and felony convictions over the last two decades while only representing 14 percent of the state’s population. Latinx New Yorkers were convicted of 21 percent of misdemeanors and 22 percent of felonies despite making up about 16 percent of the statewide population. White people, on the other hand, are about 60 percent of the state population but account for only 36 percent and 35 percent of misdemeanor and felony convictions, respectively.

These numbers mean Black people were convicted of felonies and misdemeanors at a rate roughly five times greater than white people. And Latinx people were convicted of felonies and misdemeanors at more than twice the rate of white people.

Drug conviction and arrest numbers paint an especially vivid picture of a racist criminal legal system in which behavior has little to do with who gets a criminal record and who doesn’t. White people are more likely to use drugs than people of color. Yet in Manhattan, Black people are more than 20 times more likely to be arrested and convicted of felony drug offenses.

In the ten most populous counties in the state, where about 70 percent of New Yorkers reside, Black people were more than 13 times more likely to be convicted for felony drug offenses and Latinx people were eight times more likely to be convicted for felony drug offenses. [MORE]

Judge says Liberal Authorities in San Francisco and Their Black Rolebot Mayor Can’t Clear Mostly NonWhite Homeless Camps. 38% of the Unhoused in SF are Black - Yet They are Only 6% of the Population

BLACK WARD london breed GOES HARD AGAINST PEOPLE WHO LOOK JUST LIKE HER TO MAKE HER WHITE MASTERS HAPPY. NO TIME TO BE PERCEIVED AS SERVING HER OWN PEOPLE BY DELIVERING TANGIBLE, MATERIAL BENEFITS TO THEM WHEN THE WHITE LIBERALS ARE WATCHING. FUNKTIONARY STATES:

black ward – a subvassal (straw boss), who held ward of the king’s vassal (a species of slave who owes servitude and is in a state of dependency on a superior lord). The vassal himself might be overseer of some other vassals. Black ward is the English equivalent to the Boulé in Greek. (See: Sigma Pi Phi, Informant & Straw Boss)

From [HERE] A federal judge has temporarily banned San Francisco from clearing homeless encampments, saying the city violated its own policies by failing to offer other shelter.

Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu in U.S. District Court in Oakland granted an emergency order Friday night that bars the city from taking away tents and confiscating the belongings of encampment dwellers.

The move came in a lawsuit filed on behalf of homeless plaintiffs that sought to stop San Francisco from dismantling homeless encampments until it has thousands of additional shelter beds.

Ryu cited evidence presented by the plaintiffs that the city regularly and illegally failed to offer shelter to inhabitants before clearing the encampments and improperly seized or threw out their belongings, including cellphones, medication, identification and even prosthetic limbs.

The city’s arguments in its defense were “wholly unconvincing,” the judge said.

In a statement, Mayor London Breed decried the emergency order.

“Mayors cannot run cities this way,” she said. “We already have too few tools to deal with the mental illness we see on our streets. Now we are being told not to use another tool that helps bring people indoors and keeps our neighborhoods safe and clean for our residents.”

The Coalition on Homelessness sued San Francisco in September, alleging that the city clears out encampments not to connect homeless people to services and housing as it claims, but in response to neighborhood complaints and to drive out homeless residents.

The lawsuit is among several pending in Western states where visible homelessness has grown amid a shortage of shelter beds and affordable housing.

The coalition in San Francisco also requested a preliminary injunction to stop city workers from seizing tents, clothing and other belongings of homeless people unless it follows its own policies of bagging and tagging items for safekeeping for up to 90 days. [MORE]

2022 Point-in-Time Count

Every two years, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires that all communities receiving federal funding for homelessness services conduct a Point-in-Time (PIT) Count of people experiencing homelessness. The PIT Count is the primary source of nationwide data on homelessness and identifies people living in unsheltered and sheltered settings. HSH conducted the 2022 PIT Count on February 23, 2022. [MORE]

ACLU of New Mexico Files Lawsuit Against Liberal Authorities in Albuquerque Over Inhumane Treatment of Homeless

From [HERE] The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico is suing the city of Albuquerque over its treatment of the city’s homeless population.

Attorneys from the law firm of Ives and Flores, the ACLU-NM and the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty (NMCLP) filed suit Monday, accusing the state’s largest city of illegally destroying property and encampments for the homeless, as well as jailing and fining them.

“They’re criminalizing those residents, fining them for existing in public spaces and they are also taking their property [that they] need to function within our society and to hopefully transition out of homelessness,” Laura Ives, partner at the law firm of Ives and Flores, told ABC News.

Albuquerque has gotten rid of tents, bed rolls, shopping carts, identification cards and even birth certificates, all things that can help people escape homeless, Ives said.

The ACLU said that the city closed Coronado Park, a place where homeless New Mexicans could sleep at night, by fencing it off, ultimately forcing those staying at the park to leave and got rid of their belongings, according to the suit.

“Unhoused people in Albuquerque make up the city’s most vulnerable population,” the lawsuit reads. “Subject to the harms and indignities of abject poverty, many unhoused people live outdoors, exposed to the extremes of Albuquerque’s climate, to hunger, thirst and to the constant fears and worries that accompany being unsheltered.”

There aren’t enough shelter spaces in Albuquerque for even close to every homeless person to go to the shelters, Ives said, describing the conditions at the shelters as “inhumane.”[MORE]

Prison Authorities in Virginia and Elsewhere Only Allowing Inmates to Get Photocopies of Incoming Mail

From [HERE] Many people who are incarcerated at Virginia prisons and jails won’t get the cards, drawings and photos they’re sent in the mail this holiday season. Instead, they’ll get black-and-white photocopies. 

That’s because the Virginia Department of Corrections only delivers scans of incoming mail to people inside prison facilities and shreds the original copies. Virginia prison officials said the policy began in 2017 to stop the flow of drugs into their facilities. But the strategy is not unique to Virginia. The Prison Policy Initiative said it’s a growing trend among jails and prisons nationwide.  

Santia Nance’s fiancé is incarcerated at Lawrenceville Correctional Center. Now in their 30s, Nance said they’ve known each other since they were teenagers and only reconnected a few years ago. 

“I do think that during the holidays especially, it can be a drag,” she said about trying to maintain their relationship.   

Her fiancé, Quadaire Patterson, whom she calls "Q," has about 3-and-a-half years left in prison, after having already served 14 years for robbery — a crime that makes him ineligible for early release on good behavior. 

The couple has occasional video visits and phone calls, but mail gets complicated.  

“Handwritten mail is very special to us,” said Nance, who is co-founder of Sistas in Prison Reform, a criminal justice reform organization. “We both are very creative individuals and we like to make things for each other.” 

But she said the scans of their correspondence are dark and spotty, and it’s often difficult to make out detailed drawings, pictures and handwriting. The department also limits the number of pages it scans and delivers to three pages, front and back, including the envelope. [MORE]

After Making Pledge Liar Biden Refuses to Adopt UN Resolution for a Moratorium on the Death Penalty as a Record No. of Nations Do So. US Death Row is 41% Black, but Blacks are Only 13% the Population

From [HERE] With the support of a record 125 nations, the United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling for a global moratorium on the use of the death penalty with a view towards its ultimate abolition. The United States voted no, placing it in the company of Iran, Iraq, Saudia Arabia, China, North Korea, and Vietnam.

The final vote, taken on the 15th anniversary of the General Assembly’s first adoption of a moratorium resolution on December 15, 2007, was 125 nations in favor, 37 opposed, and 22 abstentions. Support for a global execution moratorium topped the previous record of 120 attained in 2018 and matched in 2020. In November 2020, 120 nations supported the resolution, 39 opposed, and 24 abstained. 

In a joint statement, Penny Wong and Arnoldo André Tinoco, the foreign ministers of Australia and Costa Rica who led the moratorium discussion, characterized the supermajority vote “of almost two thirds” of the world’s nations as “historic.” 

“The record level of support for the resolution shows that the majority of Member States agree this brutal and inhumane punishment must end,” they wrote. “Already, four out of every five countries have abolished the death penalty or no longer apply it.”

The U.S. vote disappointed death penalty opponents who considered the resolution a major opportunity for the Biden administration to take action to advance the President’s campaign pledge to work to end the death penalty. 

ACCORDING TO THE DPIC, AMERICA’S DEATH ROW IS 41% BLACK, YET BLACKS ARE ONLY 13.6% of the ENTIRE POPULATION. IN WHAT WAYS DOES A GOVERNMENT DOMINATED BY WHITE, LIBERAL PUPPETICANS HELP BLACK PEOPLE?

Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who signed into law the bill abolishing the death penalty in Maryland in 2013 and now serves as a commissioner on the International Commission Against the Death Penalty, urged Biden to support the moratorium resolution. “All of America’s European allies, every country in the Western Hemisphere and a fast-increasing number of African nations will be among th[e] super-majority” supporting the resolution, he wrote in a December 12 commentary in America Magazine. “Why then would President Biden—who has done so much to repair America’s alliances abroad—have us side with Iran, Saudi Arabia and North Korea in voting for continued use of the death penalty in the world? … It is time for America to stop giving political cover on the world stage to Iranian and Saudi executions.”

Botched “Executions" or Murders of [disproportionately Black] Inmates by [mostly white] Authorities Reach All-Time High in US, report finds

From [HERE] While the use of the death penalty continues to decline in the United States, a new report has found that “botched” executions reached a new high this year.

In its annual report on the use of capital punishment in the country, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) said on Friday that seven of the 20 attempted executions by US states in 2022 were “visibly problematic”.

That included a case in which Alabama officials struggled to insert an intravenous (IV) line into a man for three hours, said the report, which defined a “botched” execution as one that includes “executioner incompetence, failures to follow protocols, or defects in the protocols themselves”.

“As lethal injection turns 40 years old this year, 2022 can be called ‘the year of the botched execution,'” the DPIC, a non-profit research group based in Washington, DC, said in a statement accompanying its findings, calling the proportion of problematic execution attempts “astonishing”.

Capital punishment – which refers to the sentencing of convicted offenders to death – continues to receive support in the US, with about 55 percent of people approving of its use against convicted murderers, according to a Gallup poll released last month.

A total of 18 people were executed across the country this year, in six states alone: Alabama, Arizona, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas. However, that is far lower than in previous years before the COVID-19 pandemic, as the practice has come under growing scrutiny. [MORE]

Review Discovers that Tennessee’s Lethal Injection Chemicals Haven’t Been Tested Properly for Years [Tenn. Death Row is 51% Black despite Blacks Making up only 17% of the entire Population]

From [HERE] Gov. Bill Lee is changing the way Tennessee carries out its executions, following an independent review of the state’s lethal injections.

In April, Gov. Lee paused the state’s executions hours before Oscar Smith was scheduled to be killed by lethal injection, citing concerns with the drugs themselves.

The investigation, conducted by former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton, found that the state’s lethal injections in the last few years were not tested for endotoxins, and sometimes failed — or were not subjected to — potency tests. According to the review, it was a miscommunication issue between the testing pharmacy and the state that led to the oversight.

Lee announced Wednesday that the Tennessee Department of Correction will make staffing changes at the leadership level and hire a permanent commissioner in the new year. It will be up to the new TDOC leadership to revise the state’s lethal injection protocol — a method of execution that has long been scrutinized. People on death row have opted to be killed in the electric chair or by firing squad, out of fear that lethal injection would be more painful.

The Tennessee Supreme Court will be responsible for setting new execution dates after the governor’s reprieves expire. Currently, the state has no executions scheduled for 2023.

‘Troubling findings’

The new findings were described as “troubling” and “shocking” by Kelley Henry, chief of the Capital Habeas Unit within the Nashville Federal Public Defender’s Office

“What we learned today is that secrecy in our state’s execution process breeds a lack of accountability, sloppiness, and a high risk of horrifying mistakes,” she wrote in a statement.

Advocacy groups praised the independent report, but expressed ongoing concerns.

Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty called the lethal injection protocol “irreparably flawed.” Other groups questioned the state’s ongoing use of resources to create a method of execution and said they remained skeptical.

“We remain deeply concerned about Tennessee’s execution process,” wrote Gloria Sweet-Love, president of the Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP. “This report has given us a glimpse into an execution process plagued by human error, deception, and inconsistency that mirror many of the same problems that infect the death penalty as a whole, including the racial bias that infects the whole system.”

Gov Kate Brown Commutes the Sentences of Oregon’s Death-Row Prisoners (5% Black)

From [HERE] Calling the death penalty “both dysfunctional and immoral,” Oregon Governor Kate Brown has commuted the death sentences of the 17 prisoners on the state’s death row. The commutations, which the governor announced on December 13, 2022, went into effect December 14 and resentenced the prisoners to life without parole.

According to DPIC, Oregon’s death row is 71% white, 14% Latino and 5% Black.

Brown’s commutations are the culmination of what she characterized as “the near abolition of the death penalty” by the state legislature in 2019. At that time, Oregon amended its death-penalty statute to significantly limit the crimes for which capital punishment can be imposed. . In 2021, the Oregon Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of David Ray Bartol, finding that it violated the prohibition on “disproportionate punishments” in the Oregon constitution. Experts and advocates said at the time that the rationale for that decision made it likely that every death sentence in the state would be overturned as a result of the 2019 law.

Oregon has had a moratorium on executions since 2011, when then-Governor John Kitzhaber announced he would halt executions. The state’s last execution was in 1997. Upon taking office in 2015, Brown said she would maintain the moratorium. In 2020, after the new death penalty law went into effect, Oregon closed its death-row facility and moved death-row prisoners into the general prison population, marking another step in the dismantling of the state’s capital punishment system. 

In her statement announcing the commutations, Brown called the death penalty “an irreversible punishment that does not allow for correction; is wasteful of taxpayer dollars; does not make communities safer; and cannot be and never has been administered fairly and equitably.” She said the commutations were “consistent” with the legislature’s effort to functionally end the death penalty.

Brown is the third Oregon governor to commute death sentences. In 1964, following a referendum in which Oregon voters approved a ballot question repealing the state’s death penalty law, Gov. Mark Hatfield commuted the sentences of everyone then on death-row. Previously, Gov. Robert D. Holmes had commuted every death sentence that was imposed during his term in office from 1957–1959.

The 17 commutations are the only clemencies that have been granted to death-row prisoners in 2022. Brown is the seventh broad grant of clemency to death-row prisoners by a governor in the last 50 years, and the second largest. On January 10 and 11, 2003, Illinois Gov. George Ryan pardoned four death-row prisoners and commuted the sentences of 167 others, clearing Illinois’ death row. Five other governors exercised their clemency powers to commute the death sentences of every death-row prisoner in their states: Gov. Pat Quinn commuted the death sentences of the 15 prisoners on Illinois’ death row when he signed the bill that prospectively abolished the death penalty in 2011. Gov. Jon Corzine commuted the death sentences of the eight prisoners on New Jersey’s death row in 2007, the day before he signed the bill that abolished the state’s death penalty. Gov. Toney Anaya commuted the death sentence of the five prisoners on New Mexico’s death row in 1986. In 2015, Gov. Martin O’Malley commuted the death sentences of the four prisoners still on Maryland’s death row after the legislature’s prospective abolition of capital punishment in 2013. Gov. Jared Polis commuted the death sentences of the three prisoners still on Colorado’s death row after the legislature’s prospective abolition of capital punishment in 2020. 

Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste commuted the death sentences of 8 death-row prisoners just before leaving office in 1991.

Brown has served the maximum two terms as governor permitted under Oregon’s constitution and will leave office in January 2023. Her successor, Tina Kotek, has said she is also opposed to the death penalty, and would maintain the moratorium on executions in the state.

The 17 people whose death sentences were commuted are:

• Jesse Compton

• Clinton Cunningham

• Randy Guzek

• Gary Haugen

• Michael Hayward

• Robert Langley Jr.

• Christian Longo

• Ernest Lotches

• Michael McDonnell

• Marco Montez

• Horacio Reyes-Camarena

• Ricardo Serrano

• Matthew Thompson

• Bruce Turnidge

• Joshua Turnidge

• Michael Washington Jr.

• Tara Zyst

Contrary to Media Lies, COVID Injections Have No Demonstrated Safety. A German Health Insurance Dataset (72 million people), Shows Massive Increases in Sudden and Unexpected Deaths after “Vax” Rollout

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

• Dr. Kathryn Edwards, a member of Pfizer’s data safety monitoring board (DSMB), was previously a paid adviser to Pfizer. DSMBs are supposed to be independent, and aren’t if members have previous relationships with the company

• German autopsies found “highly unusual tissue inflammation” in people who died shortly after getting the jab, and investigators suspect the inflammation observed would be fatal. They also found spike protein in the tissues of the deceased, but not another key part of SARS-CoV-2. This suggests the actual virus was not part of the problem; the only possible source of the spike protein was the jab

• Data from the German health insurance provider BKK, which covers about 10.9 million Germans, show 2.05% of COVID jab recipients sought medical care after their jab

• The largest German statutory health insurance dataset, which encompasses 72 million Germans, show massive increases in sudden and unexpected deaths after the COVID jabs rolled out

• December 13, 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis petitioned the Florida Supreme Court for a statewide grand jury investigation of crimes and wrongdoing committed against Floridians related to the COVID-19 jabs. He also established an independent Public Health Integrity Committee to analyze and assess federal health guidance before they’re implemented in Florida

From [HERE] Contrary to the official narrative (and hence popular belief), the COVID shots have no demonstrated safety. In Episode 298 of The Highwire, Del Bigtree interviews attorney Aaron Siri about the various lawsuits his firm has brought to reverse COVID jab mandates.

Siri describes a recent deposition of Dr. Kathryn Edwards, a world-leading vaccinologist who sat on Pfizer's data safety monitoring board (DSMB). This five-member committee oversaw the safety of Pfizer's jab. A DSMB is supposed to be an independent group of experts, whose responsibility it is to monitor patient safety and treatment efficacy data while a clinical trial is ongoing.

Pfizer's Not-so-Independent Safety Monitoring Board

As noted by Siri in the deposition, since the DSMB is supposed to be independent, it's crucially important that all the members of that board have no potential conflicts of interest and are in fact truly independent of the drug company whose product they're evaluating.

In the case of Edwards, she was a paid adviser to Pfizer before she was hired (by Pfizer) to be on the DSMB for their COVID jab. According to Edwards, this fact is irrelevant, because that prior relationship did not influence the work she did on the board.

"I say what I believe based on my expertise," she told Siri. "So, you don't think financial incentive can sway people's judgment at all?" Siri asked. "It does not sway my judgment, Sir," she replied. "Then why have an independent DSMB?" Siri asked. "Why doesn't Pfizer just have some of its employees on it?"

"Because we are independent; we are independent from Pfizer in this assessment," she replied. But just how can an independent advisory committee possibly be "independent" if members have prior relationships with the company?

Another noteworthy tidbit from that deposition was Edwards' comment that she reviewed "lots of reactions and adverse events" from the COVID jab trial. Yet the public has continuously been told there are no bad reactions. So, what was she looking at? And why, if there were "lots of reactions," did the DSMB conclude that there are no safety concerns?

Of course, we know at least some of what she was looking at. Pfizer trial documents1have been released showing the company amassed nine single-spaced pages' worth of "adverse events of special interest" (see pages 30 through 382), including 1,223 events with fatal outcomes between December 1, 2020 and February 28, 2021 alone.

A whistleblower who worked on Pfizer's Phase 3 trial has also come forward with evidence showing data were falsified, patients were unblinded and follow-up on reported side effects lagged way behind. Why didn't any of these issues concern the DSMB? Was it because there really was no independent DSMB?

What German Autopsy Data Have Revealed

In a mid-December 2022 Substack article, the anonymous writer who goes by the moniker "A Midwestern Doctor" reviewed German autopsy data, which demonstrate:3

• The presence of "highly unusual tissue inflammation" in people who died shortly after getting the jab. As noted by the author, "Pathologists had not observed this phenomena before the COVID-19 vaccines, and they suspected this inflammation would be fatal."

• The presence of COVID spike protein in the tissues of the deceased, whereas another key part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was absent. This suggests the actual virus was not part of the problem; the only possible source of the spike protein was the jab.

The most recent and "most definitive" study on this subject, according to A Midwestern Doctor, examined 35 people who died within 20 days of getting the COVID jab. After thorough autopsy examination, 10 of the deceased were determined to have died from causes other than the jab.

Among the remaining 25, most died from causes that, in general, have frequently been linked to vaccination. Five died from myocarditis, which could potentially be linked to the shot. In three of those five cases, the COVID jab was determined to be the definitive cause of the myocarditis that led to their death.

As noted by A Midwestern Doctor, "These results are very important for convicting the vaccines if it can also be proven that a large number of unexpected deaths are occurring following vaccination." As it turns out, that's exactly what excess mortality data tell us.

German Insurance Provider Data Show Rise in Doctor's Visits

A Midwestern Doctor also cites data from the German health insurance provider, BKK, which covers about 10.9 million Germans. One of the BKK board members, Andreas Shöfbeck, discovered concerning trends in their data, which he sent to the Paul-Ehrlich Institut, an agency of the German Federal Ministry of Health.

No good deed goes unpunished in the era of COVID censorship, however, so Shöfbeck was summarily dismissed from the board as thanks for his contribution to public health and safety. The BKK dataset showed 2.05% of COVID jab recipients sought medical care after their jab. A Midwestern Doctor continues:4

"This concerning safety signal prompted … the AfD [Alternative for Germany, a conservative political party] … to file the German equivalent of FOIA [Freedom of Information Act request] for the rest of the insurance data …

Recently AfD obtained AOK Sachsen-Anhalt's data, which once analyzed, demonstrated that many of the conditions we associate with COVID-19 injuries noticeably increased when the vaccination campaign initiated … [C]onditions which rose five-fold or more were:"

"AfD also submitted a FOIA request to KBV, the association which represents all physicians who receive insurance in Germany and thus the largest insurance dataset available."

Largest Insurance Dataset Reveal Rise in Sudden Deaths

The larger statutory health insurance dataset from KBV, which encompasses 72 million Germans, show massive increases in sudden and unexpected deaths after the COVID jabs rolled out.

The following graph is from a press conference presentation by data analyst Tom Lausen (see video below; it's in German, but you can enable English subtitles).5 No mainstream media attended the press conference. [MORE]