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Trump draws outrage with pardons for DC officers convicted in death and coverup of Black motorist

Advocates are slamming President Donald Trump‘s decision to issue pardons for two D.C. police officers who were convicted in the death and subsequent coverup of a Black motorist. “President Trump’s first-week pardons make it clear he has no respect for democracy or the rule of law in D.C. or anywhere else,” said Markus Batchelor, a former D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) commissioner and national political director at People For the American Way. Andrew Zabavsky and Terence Sutton received “full and […]

January 24, 2025

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The Obamas, VP Harris and King family mourn death of former President Jimmy Carter

Tributes are pouring in from Black political leaders following the death of former President Jimmy Carter, who died on Sunday at 100 after battling cancer. Weeks after Jimmy Carter cast his 2024 election ballot in Georgia in hopes of electing Kamala Harris as the first woman, first Black woman, and first South Asian president of the United States, the historic vice president praised Carter as a man who was “guided by a deep and abiding faith — in God, in […]

December 30, 2024 1

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Trump vows to pursue executions after Biden commutes most of federal death row

President-elect Donald Trump promised on Tuesday to “vigorously pursue” capital punishment after President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of most people on federal death row partly to stop Trump from pushing forward their executions. Trump criticized Biden’s decision on Monday to change the sentences of 37 of the 40 condemned people to life in prison without parole, arguing that it was senseless and insulted the families of their victims. Biden said converting their punishments to life imprisonment was consistent with the moratorium […]

December 26, 2024

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Relief, defiance, anger: Families and advocates react to Biden’s death row commutations

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) — Victims’ families and others affected by crimes that resulted in federal death row convictions shared a range of emotions on Monday, from relief to anger, after President Joe Biden commuted dozens of the sentences. Biden converted the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The inmates include people who were convicted in the slayings of police, military officers and federal prisoners and guards. Others were involved in deadly […]

December 24, 2024

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Biden commutes sentences of federal death row inmates, ‘striking blow’ to system that has ‘always targeted Black people’

President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of most inmates on federal death row, a historic executive action that is being celebrated by racial and social justice advocates. The president on Monday announced that he would issue commutations for 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row serving life sentences without the possibility of parole. A majority of inmates on federal death row are Black (38%) and Latino (15%), according to Death Penalty Information Center. “I’ve dedicated my career […]

December 23, 2024

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President Joe Biden reacts to the death of ‘literary legend’ Nikki Giovanni

President Joe Biden eulogized Nikki Giovanni in an official White House statement on Wednesday, hailing the late poet as a “literary legend.” “Jill and I send our love and condolences to her family—including her wife Virginia, her son Thomas, and her granddaughter Kai—and all those who loved and admired that something special, her courage,” Biden said of the famed writer, activist, and educator who died on Monday. The president recalled Giovanni’s “majestic voice” and “powerful words” in 2020, when she […]

December 12, 2024

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Michael Brown’s death sparked a decade of reckoning on race

Kayla Reed was born in a predominantly African American section of St. Louis where, like her own kin, many Black families had been transplanted out of the Deep South. After the death of her grandmother, Reed moved with her father from the city to a St. Louis County town located within one mile of Ferguson, Missouri, where 10 years ago, a Black teenager’s fatal shooting by a white police officer changed Reed’s life and shook awake a nation. “It was like […]

August 18, 2024

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Calls for justice grow in death of Black man outside Milwaukee hotel as GOP convention approaches

Calls for justice in the death of a Black man who was pinned to the ground during a struggle with security guards at a Milwaukee hotel are growing as thousands of GOP supporters and protesters are expected to gather in the city for the Republican National Convention. D’Vontaye Mitchell’s death on June 30 has become the most recent flashpoint in how the nation confronts race and what some see as the systemic brutality of Black people by members of law […]

July 14, 2024

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Members of Congress ‘saddened’ by the death of New Jersey Rep. Donald Payne Jr.

Members of Congress are devastated by the passing of their colleague U.S. Rep. Donald Payne Jr., D-N.J., who died on Wednesday at the age of 65. Payne’s death comes after he had been hospitalized for several weeks following a cardiac arrest episode earlier this month. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a statement that the New Jersey lawmaker is leaving “behind a legacy of relentless determination in the face of adversity.” Jeffries added, “Our nation is forever indebted […]

April 24, 2024