Injustice Watch (https://www.injusticewatch.org/news/)
The Illinois governor said he could not support giving jail inmates easier access to vote, as long as the bill also included a provision that required corrections officials to make sure prisoners knew their voting rights upon release. The bill’s disappointed sponsor contends that the bill only required corrections officials to put voting rights literature into the packet handed to prisoners as they are freed.
Thirty-four times in the past six years, the Illinois Appellate Court has upended decisions by Cook County Circuit Judge Maura Slattery Boyle based on her errors, overturning her decisions at a pace far higher than that of other judges.
The Online News Association has named Injustice Watch a finalist for the 2018 Online Journalism Awards, which honor excellence in digital storytelling and distribution. Injustice Watch’s series, A Broken System, was selected for the Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award. The series exposed widespread corruption in the Kansas City, Kansas, criminal justice system which led to the wrongful conviction of Lamonte McIntyre. Days later, McIntyre was released after serving 23 years for murders he did not commit. Winners will be announced at the Online News Association Conference and Online Journalism Awards Banquet on Saturday, Sept.
More than 50 current and former law enforcement officials have signed a letter backing the creation of a conviction integrity unit in Kansas City, Kansas after a high profile exoneration uncovered flaws in the justice system there last year. Police and the local district attorney disagree on whether the local prosecutor should have authority to reexamine cases.
Cook County judge Matthew Coghlan, facing retention in November, says he was not part of a meeting where a corrupt cop convinced an informant to frame two innocent men for murder. Court records, however, show he may have met the informant that day.
Skalko, a digital news leader, comes aboard to help Injustice Watch grow as an organization and help us to achieve the mission of exposing obstacles to a just and equitable society.
The state Supreme Court is urged to reform the bail system statewide, ensuring that defendants would not be held in custody awaiting trial only because of their poverty.
After spending more than two decades in prison, inmate Earl Kelly is contending his conviction should be invalid because the judge in his case, Francis X. Golniewicz III, was later removed from the bench after misleading Cook County voters and Illinois officials about his eligibility to be elected to his seat on the bench.
Coalition of reform groups hoped to win ruling that cash bail system discriminated against pre-trial detainees held because they could not make bail, while wealthier defendants walked free before trial. But Cook County Chancery judge concludes the lawsuit was asking for relief that was beyond her authority to grant.
Cook County judge Matthew Coghlan is among 62 Cook County judges who will ask voters to retain them for new terms in the November election. But Coghlan has some issues, including a current lawsuit contending he conspired with a disgraced Chicago police detective to frame two men for murder.
A group of four residents and six community groups took the City to court on Tuesday, contending that the Chicago police department gang database includes residents simply based on their race or neighborhood. And the results are steep, the lawsuit says, impacting police stops, immigration relief, and bail consideration.
