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20 Mar, 4 tweets, 2 min read
Since 2021 began, New Orleans has been offering such a powerful illustration of why local elections matter.

A short thread.
Act 1: In fall of 2020, local activists in New Orleans worked to "flip the bench," i.e. get public defenders intent on fighting mass incarceration elected as judge.

In November, they scored some wins, including with candidate Angel Harris. [stay tuned]

theappeal.org/politicalrepor…
Act 2: a DA with exceptionally carceral politics retired in 2020. And in a hotly-contested December runoff, the candidate who won (Jason Williams) had ran on vowing to unleash progressive reforms to decrease incarceration.

theappeal.org/politicalrepor…

And then this week...
Act 3: A 27-year old man spent the past 8 years in prison over a wrongful conviction. (He was prosecuted by the previous DA.)

But DA Jason Williams agreed to his release.

And this week a judge ordered his release. Who was the judge? Angel Harris.

nola.com/news/courts/ar…

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More from @Taniel

Taniel Profile picture
18 Mar
just a mid-week reminder of things we do as a country ImageImage
when a 6-year old is dragged to court for picking a tulip

read the North Carolina story: journalnow.com/north-carolina… Image
7,300 complaints were filed against children YOUNGER THAN 11 in North Carolina, between 2015 & 2018.

47% of the complaints were against Black children. (22% of the state's population is Black.)

journalnow.com/north-carolina… Image
Read 6 tweets
Taniel Profile picture
17 Mar
There's a newly empowered progressive majority on the Washington Supreme Court. And it issued 2 sweeping decisions on youth sentences & war on drugs.

I wrote on how the rulings show off a blueprint of how state courts can do more to advance civil rights: theappeal.org/politicalrepor…
Over the past 3 weeks, narrow majorities on the Washington Supreme Court pointed to the state constitution to:

1/ extend protections against life without parole, and
2/ strike down the state statute criminalizing drug possession, effectively legalizing it (for now?).
The first decision is a judicial milestone in extending the U.S. Supreme Court's jurisprudence on life without parole beyond age 18.

The 2nd decision is especially striking in its willingness to rock the boat whatever the concerns it's impractical to address rights violations.
Read 6 tweets
Taniel Profile picture
16 Mar
A big share of the debate on voting rights was long focused on getting people’s rights restored once they finish whole sentence. But many activists were pushing loudly to get rid of disenfranchisement altogether. And in just a few years, they’ve changed the landscape so much.
Still only DC has outright abolished it (joining ME & VT).

But push helped move default Dem position further to universal suffrage — at least to idea anyone not incarcerated should vote. States getting that done since 2019 unthinkable 26 months ago — CA, NJ, CO, harsh NV...
And today, the most shocking shoe dropped Virginia. The Gov said he’d enfranchise anyone not in prison via EOs.

When the Gov in 2017 did a weaker EO, *Dem* prosecutors fought him.

But then, they lost primaries. Activists demanded full abolition. Today we got a far stronger EO.
Read 4 tweets
Taniel Profile picture
16 Mar
big Virginia news: Gov. Northam will be issuing an executive action today to restore the voting rights of anyone who is formerly incarcerated.

This is a big extension of rights in VA, and an extension of what governors here have been doing.

CNN reports: cnn.com/2021/03/16/pol…
To recap:

1/ Virginia law imposes LIFETIME bans on voting for any felony.

2/ in recent years, McAuliffe & then Northam have been restoring the voting rights of ppl who complete their full sentence (including probation, etc.)

3/ New order extends that to anyone not in prison.
A wave of states have been enfranchising anyone not in prison (NJ, CA, CO, NV., now 19 total) legislatively or via initiative.

This is 1st time I'm aware of a governor getting a state to this stage. (VA's legislature did pass a similar measure, but needs to pass again in 2022.)
Read 7 tweets
Taniel Profile picture
12 Mar
Four Democratic U.S. representatives from NY all called on Governor Cuomo to resign within minutes just now: Reps. Jerry Nadler, Jamaal Bowman, Mondaire Jones, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
UPDATE: 8 Dem representatives from NY just called on Cuomo to resign in statements issued within minutes:

Reps. Jerry Nadler, Jamaal Bowman, Mondaire Jones, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Carolyn Maloney, Yvette Clarke, Nydia Velazquez, Grace Meng

(Kathleen Rice had already done so)
UPDATE: 9 Dem representatives from NY called on Cuomo to resign in statements within minutes:

Jerry Nadler, Jamaal Bowman, Mondaire Jones, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Carolyn Maloney, Yvette Clarke, Nydia Velazquez, Grace Meng, Adriano Espaillat

Kathleen Rice had already done so.
Read 9 tweets
Taniel Profile picture
10 Mar
The Iowa prosecutor who chose to go after this reporter who was covering BLM protests is a Democrat who hasn't faced an opponent since 1990. Seat is up in 2022. (desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/…)

(Prosecutors matter!)
And prosecutorial elections matter too!

(Hence why we're covering the 2021 races so attentively at @theappeal: theappeal.org/criminal-justi…)

Polk County will have to wait another year.
Too often in cases like this, the basic fact that the trial was *a choice made by a prosecutor to use their discretion in this way* does not get the attention it deserves.

Will this one be different?
Read 4 tweets

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