Injustice Watch (https://www.injusticewatch.org/news/page/2/)
Eisha Love is one of nine transgender plaintiffs challenging Illinois law that restricts former prisoners from choosing their own names. Ms. Love sat down with Abby Blachman and Charles Preston of Injustice Watch to describe why this issue matters so much.
Two federal lawsuits challenge Illinois and Wisconsin laws that block name changes following convictions for a decade or more. Lawyers for nine transgender women say the laws cause them to be outed, leading to harassment and abuse.
At stake is whether the constitutional duty to turn over exculpatory evidence extends to plea bargaining. Issue arose in Texas case where prosecutors took guilty plea from defendant without disclosing video cameras in the jail captured a jailhouse scuffle on camera — contradicting the police account that the defendant initiated the scuffle.
The Illinois Supreme Court unanimously ruled in a landmark decision Thursday that a 41-year sentence for a juvenile offender constitutes the equivalent of a life term.The decision triggers sentencing protections for juvenile offenders who are sentenced to more than 40 years in prison.
Appellate court finds lineup was too suggestive if only one suspect had dreadlocks, a face tattoo, and wore dark hoodie, string pants and white shoes — which matched the description of the suspect.
The DuPage County State’s Attorney’s office on Wednesday dropped murder charges against a man who spent nearly 17 years in custody for beating to death his girlfriend’s two-year-old son before his conviction was overturned last summer based on doubts about his guilt.
An Illinois Appellate Court panel upheld last week the conviction of Oscar Flores on murder and attempted murder charges, brushing aside contentions by Flores’ attorney that his retrial was again marred by rulings of Cook County Circuit Judge Maura Slattery Boyle.
An Illinois House committee approved a bill late Tuesday that would ease the harsh penalties in the Illinois retail theft law. But amidst opposition from Illinois retailers, members of the House Judiciary – Criminal Committee agreed to consider amending the reform effort before moving it to the full House.
Illinois Corrections Department officials have been ordering prisoners, released on parole, to wear electronic monitoring even without a court order. On Wednesday a State House committee voted to restrict the use of electronic monitoring, after a hearing that advocates said puts Illinois on the cutting edge on the issue. The bill now goes to the full House.
A civil rights lawsuit filed Thursday contends that Oklahoma, the state with a higher incarceration rate than anywhere else in the country, operates debtors’ prisons, as defendants end up with increasing fines and more jail time simply for being poor.