Making a song with R. Kelly was a mistake. I did not value the accusers’ stories because they were black women. I made a mistake”. – Chance the Rapper In 2008, recording artist Robert Kelly, also known as “R. Kelly” was acquitted of all twenty-one counts of child pornography. At the center of the trial was a video that included R. Kelly engaged in a sexual encounter with a minor, who was believed to be thirteen at the time the video surfaced. A decade after his trial, the key

Mentally ill offenders possess a unique set of circumstances and needs. However, all too often, the cycle through the criminal justice system without appropriate care to address their mental health. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, individuals with mental health needs make up a large proportion of the United States correctional population. An estimated 56 percent of state prisoners, 45 percent of federal prisoners, and 64 percent of jail inmates have a mental he

Correctional facilities’ attempt to balance security and inmates’ constitutional rights often skews in favor of security. However, in a country that prides itself on religious freedom, Domineque Ray’s religious discrimination within the death chamber raises uncomfortable constitutional questions. In 1994, Ray murdered two brothers, Earnest and Reinhard Mabins. While still undetected for their murders, in 1995, Ray brutally raped and murdered fifteen-year-old Tiffany Harville

Criminal justice reform legislation is critical in reducing mass incarceration and recidivism rates. In December, 2018, Congress passed the First Step Act, which revises U.S. mandatory minimum sentencing laws, expands early release credits for prisoners, and provides funding for recidivism-reducing programs for prisoners. Although legislation at state and federal levels helps amend our current criminal justice system and assist people that are already incarcerated, local comm

The Supreme Court ruled (by 5-4 majority decision) that the revealing nature of CSLI data invokes a “reasonable expectation of privacy” (within the meaning of Katz v. United States). The Supremes held that Cell Site Location Information (CSLI) has such a “comprehensive” and “revealing nature” that any examination of CSLI data by law enforcement amounts to SEARCH. (Carpenter v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 2206, 2223). Now law enforcement may only gain access to this informati

There has been a debate on whether a prisoner is “healthy” enough to execute. Consistent with the Eighth Amendment, and this Court’s decisions in Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 (1986), and Panetti v. Quarterman, 551 U.S. 930 (2007), a state may execute a prisoner whose mental disability leaves him without memory of his commission of the capital offense. But, it does not allow a state to execute a prisoner who has lost his cognitive ability to rationally understand the circu