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☆ From Cell to City Hall: Candidate’s Win Shows Shift in Politics of Crime
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-09 | by ( Corey Kilgannon | More About Corey Kilgannon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

During New York City’s crack era in the early 1990s, with homicide tallies five times higher than today, the authorities resorted to ruthless law enforcement. “They’d pull your socks off, pull your pants off.”Crime fell across the country during the ensuing decades in a broad societal shift, and New York become one of America’s safest big cities and a thriving tourist destination. But in its darkest days police and prosecutors had cut corners and used tactics that left untold numbers of innocent people — mostly poor men of color — imprisoned on bogus murder, rape and robbery charges. The prisoners’ dogged legal challenges prompted reinvestigations helped by left-leaning prosecutors, advances in DNA testing, pressure from newly formed advocacy groups and generous government restitution, turning New York into a national hotbed of exoneration. In recent years, one innocent middle-aged man after another has been released, ravaged by years in prison, into a tamer city.

Persons: ”, Derrick Hamilton, reinvestigations Locations: New York, Brooklyn

☆ Opinion | Justice Delayed
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Lisa Belkin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

“We investigated this thing upside down,” said Jerry Hill, a retired state attorney, in a “Bone Valley” interview with Mr. King’s co-host, Kelsey Decker, minutes after the board denied parole to Mr. Schofield in 2020. And so it went in the Adams and Schofield cases, as the prosecutors all but physically barred the jailhouse door. There was no expression of regret from the prosecutors who convicted Randall Dale Adams in Dallas. (Mr. Lindsey himself spent three years on death row before the Florida Supreme Court concluded the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction. He is one of 30 death row inmates in Florida to be exonerated since 1972, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.)

☆ The Fed’s autopsy report on Silicon Valley Bank is coming. Here’s what to expect
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The Federal Reserve, which is responsible for supervising banks in the United States, plans to release its report at 11 a.m. Another federal regulator, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, will release a similar report on Signature Bank, which fell two days after SVB, in the afternoon. Those assets began steadily losing value when the central bank raised interest rates at a rapid pace last year. As the bank stumbled, it became clear that virtually all — 97%, according to data from Wedbush Securities — of SVB’s deposits were uninsured. There are indications the Fed, SVB’s primary regulator, warned the bank as early as 2019 about its insufficient risk-management systems, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

☆ How investors cash in on the $2.9 billion boom in wrongful-conviction lawsuits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Delon Thornton | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

For the past few decades, state and local governments throughout the U.S. have paid out a total of $2.9 billion to Americans who were wrongly convicted of crimes. Collectively, over 25,000 years have been lost behind bars to the wrongfully convicted, according to recent estimates. Thirty-eight states, the federal government and the District of Columbia all offer exonerees some form of wrongful-conviction compensation. "There's no credit checks, there's no collaterals, there's no guarantees, there's no assets," said Abraham Arouesty, of Tribeca Capital Group, a litigation firm that offers funding for wrongful-conviction cases. Watch the video above to find out more about why investors are betting on wrongful-conviction lawsuits

☆ The Fed Passes the Buck on Bank Failures
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

One certainty in politics is that the Federal Reserve will never accept responsibility for any financial problem. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr played that self-exoneration game on Tuesday before the Senate as he blamed bankers and Congress for Silicon Valley Bank’s failure. No one disputes that bankers failed to hedge the risk posed by rising interest rates to asset prices and deposits. What Mr. Barr didn’t say is that the Fed’s historic monetary mistake created the incentives for the bank blunders. The Fed fueled the fantastic deposit growth at SVB and other banks with its prolonged quantitative easing and zero interest-rate policy that caused banks to pile into longer-term, higher-yielding assets.

☆ Trump was invited to testify before a New York grand jury, suggesting an indictment could be near, New York Times reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Laura Italiano | Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Prosecutors offered Trump a chance to testify before a grand jury next week, per The New York Times. Such invitations are rarely accepted, but signal a grand jury may be close to voting on an indictment. In a statement to ABC News's John Santucci, a Trump spokesperson said: "The Manhattan District Attorney's threat to indict President Trump is simply insane. President Trump was the victim of extortion then, just as he is now. It's standard to offer the target of a grand jury the opportunity to voluntarily testify.

☆ New York prosecutors indicate Trump criminal charges likely, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Two defense attorneys for Trump defense attorneys confirmed to NBC News that Trump has been told through his lawyers he can appear before the grand jury. The Trump attorneys said such an offer is standard, and that he was not issued a subpoena compelling his appearance. A spokesperson for Trump told NBC News: "The Manhattan District Attorney's threat to indict President Trump is simply insane." "The fact that after their intensive investigation the DA is even considering a new political attack is a clear exoneration of President Trump in all areas. President Trump was the victim of extortion then, just as he is now.

Police officers involved in the deaths have become an intense focus of investigation, protest, and media coverage. Despite being at the heart of some of the most defining incidents in modern policing, most of the officers involved continue to live their lives under the radar. Insider's review of 72 cops involved in two dozen of the most notorious police killings of the past 30 years shows the many different paths officers have taken. There's no nationwide view into what happens to officers involved in egregious incidents of violence. In rare cases, cops involved in these killings have tried to publicly rehabilitate their image rather than seek out anonymity.

☆ India's top court to consider cases against block on BBC documentary
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Arpan Chaturvedi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI, Jan 30 (Reuters) - India's Supreme Court will consider petitions next week against a government order blocking the sharing of clips of a BBC documentary that questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership during riots in 2002 in the western state of Gujarat. The Supreme Court will take up the petitions next week, Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said in court on Monday. A New Delhi-based lawyer, M L Sharma, opposed the government's move in one of the petitions to the Supreme Court. He was exonerated in 2012 following an inquiry overseen by the Supreme Court and a petition questioning his exoneration was dismissed last year. The BBC has said the documentary was "rigorously researched" and involved a wide range of voices and opinions, including responses from people in Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

☆ Indian university reports power cut ahead of Modi documentary screening
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Indian students said they would show again a BBC documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the government has dismissed as propaganda after a Tuesday campus screening was disrupted by a power cut and intimidation by opponents. The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) plans to show the documentary, “India: The Modi Question,” in every Indian state, its general secretary told Reuters on Wednesday. More than a dozen students were detained by police at a New Delhi university on Wednesday ahead of the screening, broadcaster NDTV reported. Police then detained more than a dozen students there about an hour ahead of the screening, according to the broadcaster. The media coordinator for the university administration did not comment when asked about the power cut on the campus.

[1/2] India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi walks after the handover ceremony during the G20 Leaders' Summit, in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, November 16, 2022. The Students' Federation of India (SFI) plans to show the documentary, "India: The Modi Question", in every Indian state, its general secretary told Reuters on Wednesday. "We are encouraging campuses across the country to hold screenings as an act of resistance against this censorship," Ghosh said. The media coordinator for the university administration did not comment when asked about the power cut on the campus. Ghosh said members of a right-wing student group threw bricks at the students hoping to watch the documentary hurting several, and students had complained to police.

☆ Indian university warns against screening of BBC documentary on Modi
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI, Jan 24 (Reuters) - A top Indian university has warned its students' union of strict disciplinary action if it goes ahead with a planned screening of a BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, saying it might disturb peace and harmony of the campus. Modi was chief minister of Gujarat during the violence in which more than 2,000 people were killed, most of them Muslims. The university administration said on its website it had not given permission for the documentary to be shown. "This is to emphasise that such an unauthorised activity may disturb peace and harmony of the university campus," the university said. The documentary is also scheduled to be screened at various campuses in the southern state of Kerala on Tuesday.

☆ Indian university warns students not to screen BBC documentary on Modi
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW DELHI, Jan 24 (Reuters) - A top Indian university has threatened strict disciplinary action if its students' union carries out plans on Tuesday to screen a BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the move might disturb peace and harmony on campus. The students' union of New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, long seen as a bastion of left-wing politics, said on Twitter it would screen the documentary, "India: The Modi Question", at a cafeteria at 9 p.m. (1530 GMT). "The concerned students/individuals are firmly advised to cancel the proposed programme immediately, failing which a strict disciplinary action may be initiated as per the university rules." She declined to comment on the university's threat of disciplinary action, however. The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the threat of disciplinary action.

☆ India says BBC documentary on India PM Modi is "propaganda"
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves to his supporters as he arrives to cast his vote during the second and last phase of Gujarat state assembly elections in Ahmedabad, India, December 5, 2022. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File PhotoNEW DELHI, Jan 19 (Reuters) - India's foreign ministry on Thursday dismissed a BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi which questioned his leadership during the 2002 Gujarat riots as "propaganda". Accused of failing to stop the rioting, Modi denied the accusations and was exonerated in 2012 following an inquiry by India's top court. Terming the BBC documentary a "propaganda piece" meant to push a "discredited narrative", foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said a "bias", "lack of objectivity", and "continuing colonial mindset" is "blatantly visible" in it. "We offered the Indian Government a right to reply to the matters raised in the series – it declined to respond," a BBC spokesperson said.

FollowNEW YORK, Dec 27 (Reuters) - A divided federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out the insider trading convictions of four defendants, including two former hedge fund partners, over leaks from a U.S. healthcare agency about planned changes to Medicare reimbursement rates. The court agreed with prosecutors that the May 2018 convictions could not stand after a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that clarified when alleged misuse of property triggered federal fraud laws. They said Blaszczak passed the information to Huber and Olan, who used it to make $7 million by trading healthcare stocks. The appeals court upheld the defendants' convictions in 2019, but the Supreme Court ordered a reconsideration after ruling in the so-called "Bridgegate" case. The court said the alleged scheme did not aim to obtain "property" within the meaning of the underlying fraud statute.

☆ Alec Baldwin files suit over 'Rust' shooting, seeks to 'clear his name'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Baldwin named all four as cross-defendants in a lawsuit originally filed against him last year by Mamie Mitchell, the film’s script supervisor. Baldwin said he relied on all four to do their jobs, and that Hutchins died as a result of their negligence. As a result, Baldwin says he has experienced “immense grief” and suffered an “emotional, physical and financial toll.”“More than anyone else on that set, Baldwin has been wrongfully viewed as the perpetrator of this tragedy,” wrote Baldwin’s attorney, Luke Nikas. Further, Baldwin accuses Seth Kenney, the supplier, of showing a “cavalier disregard for proper separation between live and dummy ammunition.”All four have previously denied culpability. In a statement Thursday, Gloria Allred, who represents Mitchell, said Baldwin should take responsibility for his actions.

☆ Police investigating unsolved murder of JonBenet Ramsey to seek help from cold case team
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Minyvonne Burke | Minyvonne Burke Is A Senior Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Police in Boulder, Colorado, will consult with a state cold case team as they continue to investigate the 1996 murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey. The Colorado Cold Case Review Team is made up of professional investigative, analytical and forensic experts from across the state. Police said the team "is another tool to help further cold case homicide investigations." Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies continue to work on JonBenet’s case. JonBenet’s half-brother, John Andrew, commented on the news, writing on Twitter that it was a "positive" step in her case.

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