This is exploding on right-wing Twitter as if it’s some new revelation. It isn’t.

The thing is, there’s actually a nugget of truth here. But it doesn’t exonerate Chauvin. Instead, its an indictment of how cops are reflexively cleared for in-custody deaths.

A quick🧵

https://twitter.com/tuckercarlson/status/1715465410856841628

The Minneapolis ME’s office did indeed give prosecutors an improper, preliminary report that appeared to downplay Chauvin’s role in Floyd’s death. (A judge later scolded the DA’s office for this.)

This happens often with in-custody deaths.

After spending 29 years trying to execute him for a crime he didn't commit, Arizona finally freed Barry Jones.

Yet as his family and legal team waited for him at the jail for his release, state officials dumped him at a Greyhound station. They didn't bother telling anyone. It's just a perfect illustration of the CJ system's utter lack of humanity. To find his family, Jones had to first navigate a city he hadn't seen in decades. His first human interaction as a free man was with a Del Taco employee, who refused to let him use the phone.

DOJ just released the report from its two-year investigation of the Minneapolis police department.

Here's a thread of notable excerpts.

This first one happened *while a DOJ investigator was on a ride-along.* "Sit on the ground. I'm gonna mace ya."

Ohio says AEDPA bars a death row prisoner from challenging the bitemark evidence used to convict him.

The state is *not* arguing that bitemark evidence isn't bullshit. Only that AEDA prevents this prisoner from arguing in fed. court that it's bullshit.

bloomberglaw.com/bloomberglawne… The specific, somewhat complicated issue here is whether the prisoner can make his case in district court or must take the more circuitous and difficult route of first getting permission from the fed. appeals court.

But the core problem is that AEDPA allows states to defend ...

🧵

So this is making the rounds again.

These were preliminary opinions from the ME, which he gave before final lab results had been completed.

The same ME later testified against Chauvin at trial, and clearly said Floyd's death was a homicide.

https://twitter.com/fakertarians/status/1662063721391292416?s=20

That said, there are definitely issues worth discussing here.

Why was the ME consulting with prosecutors before completing the autopsy? Why did he give prosecutors opinions that contradicted his trial testimony, and have since been thoroughly refuted by the medical community?

The Tennessee legislature responds to the Tyre Nichols murder by . . . overriding police accountability measures passed by voters, stripping civilian review boards of their power, and making it more difficult to investigate abuse and excessive force.

https://twitter.com/SekouFranklin/status/1643735115422466049?s=20

This legislature is an abomination -- a body of reactionary, hypocritical, culture-warring ignoramuses with nothing but contempt for the people they claim to serve.

dailywire.com/news/tennessee…

Seeing a lot of responses along the lines of: Memphis PD implemented various reforms. Those didn't prevent Tyre Nichols's death. Therefore, those reforms have failed.

A few thoughts:

1. We don't know that these reforms were implemented in any real way. Indeed, it looks ... ... like they were mostly symbolic. For example, it doesn't appear that complaints about police brutality in Memphis were taken seriously.

2. No reform is a panacea. But incidents like this don't mean they're bad ides. We won't see the abuse and misconduct that reforms prevent.

At about the same time Memphis created the SCORPION program, Atlanta PD announced a similar unit called Titan.

https://twitter.com/atlanta_police/status/1433547725581258754?lang=en

The city previously had a similar group of aggressive, "elite" cops called the Red Dogs, which won police leaders lots praise and flattering profiles.

atlantamagazine.com/news-culture-a…

A few thoughts on this well-intentioned New Hampshire bill to ban no-knock raids:

First, it needs a provision requiring police to give occupants a reasonable amount of time to answer the door after the officers have knocked and announced.

legiscan.com/NH/text/HB135/… Otherwise, police could knock and announce as or shortly after they've broken down the door (as we've seen over and over again). That would violate the intent and purpose of the knock-and-announce rule, but police could argue they're still technically in compliance with the law.

Here are a few choice quotes from Part 2 of my interview with retired defense investigator @AndrewHSowards:

"A good prosecutor — by which I mean an effective one — has this incredible ability to tell a lot of truths that add up to a lie."

radleybalko.substack.com/p/on-broken-br… " . . . “harmless error” [are] the two most infuriating words in the criminal justice system."

For years, LR cops had shady informants conduct drug buys, then launched extraordinarily violent raids, sometimes using explosives that blew front doors several feet across the room. In some cases, there were children, elderly, or disabled people inside.

radleybalko.substack.com/p/exclusive-un… Some of these raids were also executed over what drug cops themselves called "small amounts of marijuana" -- in some cases just a single $100 purchase.

We also now know that some of those informant purchases were fabricated. They never happened.

radleybalko.substack.com/p/exclusive-un…

So after nine years, I'm being let go by the Washington Post. This is disappointing but not surprising. In recent years, the Opinion leadership has made it increasingly difficult to do the reporting & in-depth analysis I was hired to do -- in favor of short, hot takes. Over the last year, it's become clear that my short, hot takes aren't particularly welcome either. My last day is Dec 1.

It's a deflating way to end a dream job. But I'm proud of the journalism I've published in the last decade, including reporting that has brought real change.

Some thoughts on the larger ramifications of the Boudin recall:

One reason why DA's races became some an attractive venue for criminal justice reformers is that so few people pay attention to them. A small group of motivated voters can swing a race and effect real change. But that works both ways. Once a reformer is in office, another small group of highly motivated voters can easily remove him or her. The fact that Boudin's actual policies are still popular in SF suggests his removal wasn't due to his policies themselves but his inability to ...

Humor me for another quick, indignant thread about the Barry Jones case:

Now that the Supreme Court has slammed the door on him, Jones' best hope is probably clemency. A clemency petition can get a big push if the current DA of the office that originally won the conviction ... ... comes out in favor of overturning that conviction. We've seen this on a few occasions in non-capital cases in offices in which a reformist DA took over.

Ideally, this comes after the new DA's conviction integrity unit (CIU) looks into a case and finds evidence of innocence.

Here, “custom-made exception” means “the state gave him two terrible lawyers who both failed to make the minimal effort to debunk the state’s bullshit evidence, and failed to discover the evidence that has since established his innocence.”

https://twitter.com/baseballcrank/status/1528743770094804993

This is a common diversionary tactic with law and order justices.

A prisoner says, “Here is the evidence that I’m innocent — that you convicted the wrong man.”

They reply, “But look how gruesome the crime was!”

Awful. Barry Jones, one of the death row prisoners in this case, is likely innocent. He was able to show that his post-conviction attorney failed to uncover evidence of his innocence. The court ruled that it doesn’t matter. Just utterly illogical, immoral, and unjust.

https://twitter.com/steve_vladeck/status/1528740723612430336

The attorney from the Arizona AG’s office who argued this case before SCOTUS literally told the court that “innocence isn’t enough.” He said this in reference to Jones, a man his office is trying to execute.

And he won.

theintercept.com/2021/12/30/bar…

“Crime is soaring in City X under this reformist DA!”

It’s actually down. Or it’s rising, but at a slower rate than in comparable cities with traditional DAs. “That’s because this DA won’t prosecute crimes, so they aren’t recorded!”

Crime rates are based on reported crimes, not prosecutions or convictions.

This @AuntB piece from a few years ago is one of my favorite examples of how we teach and think about race and history.

nashvillescene.com/news/pithinthe… Back in 1932, Daughters of the Confederacy's paid $50K to name a Vanderbilt U. residence hall "Confederate Memorial Hall."

In 2016, the school removed the name and paid the group $1.2 million to reimburse them, with interest.

This provoked the usual outrage . . .

There's an incredible moment in the last episode of @chronic_jordan and @LilianaSegura's terrific podcast, in which a retired Houston detective just casually admits that he and his colleagues routinely omitted exculpatory evidence from police reports.

theintercept.com/podcasts/murde… The ease with which he says it is just astounding These guys investigated hundreds of homicides. They were profiled on network TV for their murder-solving aptitude. Then, decades later, the guy just admits that they routinely buried evidence of possible innocence.

This might be the most infuriating behavior from government officials I've ever seen in a wrongful conviction case.

Darryl Howard spent 26 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. The city of Durham, NC . . .

newsobserver.com/news/local/cri… . . . aggressively defended the conviction, even after it was clear they got it wrong.

Howard was exonerated, and last year, a jury awarded him $6 million.

Durham is now refusing to pay, claiming (falsely) that the false conviction was due to a single detective.

Hot tip for Chris Rufo:

— There is a major, highly influential American organization whose former highest ranking officer has admitted to sexually assaulting children. (Denny Hastert) — It’s current leader has been credibly accused of sexual misconduct — including rape — by over 20 women, has made inappropriate sexual remarks about young girls, and has been accused of and boasted about peeping on underage girls as they undress. (Donald Trump)