Matthew T. Mangino Creators May 7, 2024 Robert Roberson's story is a tragic one. He is sitting on death row in Texas for killing his 2-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis by shaking her so violently that it caused her death. John J. Lennon, an incarcerated journalist who works with the Prison Letters Project at Yale Law School, recently wrote about Roberson for Slate. The theory behind Roberson's conviction is what is commonly known as shaken baby syndrome. Proponents of the theory of shaken baby syndrome claim that shaking a baby produces a so-called "triad" of catastrophic injuries exclusive to s ..read more

In state after state, prison systems have long been plagued by inadequate health care, resulting in the spread of treatable diseases and, in many cases, preventable deaths behind bars, reported Vox. But a key demographic trend threatens to make that problem even worse: Over the last several decades, America’s prison population has been rapidly aging, and, as in Washington’s case, prisoners’ health needs have become more significant as a result. Here is a link to a column I wrote on prisons as de facto mental health facilities In the Criminal Justice System things are Worse ..read more

I had the opportunity to attend a recent lecture in Pittsburgh by best selling author Erik Larson on the release of his new book, "The Demon of Unrest" about the months between Lincoln's election in 1860 and the start of the Civil War. Larson opened his lecture to questions, and one thoughtful member of the audience asked Larson--with his new book and prior book "The Splendid and the Vile" about Churchill taking the reins during the Nazi Blitz--what common themes are there to the run up to war? Larson replied--with an answer befitting of today's political climate--"When people say outlandish t ..read more

Out of all the meals consumed on death row, most people on the outside only know about the “last meal” requested by the condemned, provided out of some sense of dignity and humanity as window dressing for state-sponsored killing, reported The Appeal. They imagine lavish meals savored by hardened killers—and the invectives hurled by politicians as they pander to constituents about the extravagant cost.  But the public never hears about the executioner’s meal. I was not sentenced to death until March 18, 1999. Prior to that, as a “safekeeper” at Central Prison awaiting my capital trial in 1 ..read more

 In 2021, Detroit was in trouble. The city, which already had one of the highest murder rates in the country, was experiencing a surge in gun violence coinciding with the Covid-19 pandemic. In the first five months of the year, homicides were up 27 percent, and nonfatal shootings were up 44 percent, reported Vox. James White, who was Detroit’s assistant police chief from 2012 to 2020, had only been retired from the department for a year when he got the call to return, this time as chief of police, in June 2021. When he came back, he said, “policing had completely ..read more

 The Arizona State Senate voted 16 to 14 to repeal an abortion ban dating back to 1864, leaving it to Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs to sign the repeal into law, which she has committed to do, reported Jurist. The State Senate’s debate was contentious, with lawmakers delivering theatrical monologues frequently punctuated by cries of protest in the gallery. The vote follows a ruling by Arizona’s Supreme Court that the 159-year-old law banning abortion was enforceable in the aftermath of the US Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to ove ..read more

Matthew T. Mangino CreatorsApril 29, 2024 The United States has the second highest rate worldwide of incarcerated women. In recent decades, there has been a dramatic increase in U.S. correctional population, and women are a rapidly growing segment of that population. The U.S. incarcerates about 65 out of every 100,000 women, according to The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. Most women who are incarcerated are within their reproductive years, and many women are pregnant at reception. Nearly 4% of incarcerated women in the U.S. are pregnant; some reports estimate that t ..read more

 A car dealership owned by family members of U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly of Butler is the recipient of a nearly $315,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to install enough solar panels to power 25 homes, reported the Erie Times-News. The grant program was funded by President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which Kelly, R-16th Dist., opposed because it was "loaded with bad policy and wasteful spending." The allocation was listed in a USDA report of quarterly awards from its Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). The grant is being used at a Mike Kelly Automotive Group ..read more

The former president refers to the four prosecutions he faces as “witch hunts” motivated by partisanship and part of a nefarious scheme to keep him from returning to the White House. opined the editorial board of The New York Times. Donald Trump has repeated this narrative even though the prosecutions have been brought by different prosecutors around the country, and even though different grand juries, each composed of a random selection of regular citizens in different states, handed up indictments that now total 88 felony charges against him. In the weeks leading up to the sta ..read more

The United States Supreme Court will hear Trump v U.S. arguments today. A high court ruling will determine whether former president Donald Trump is entitled to immunity from federal prosecution or if he can be tried on criminal charges for his conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.   To read more CLICK HERE ..read more