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| Opening Statement April 11, 2018 |
| Edited by ANDREW COHEN |
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| Opening Statement is our pick of the day’s criminal justice news. Not a subscriber? Sign up. For original reporting from The Marshall Project, visit our website. |
When the feds came knocking at Michael Cohen’s door. When they raided Cohen’s office and residences Monday FBI agents were looking for records of payments to women alleging affairs with his client, Donald Trump. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, not special counsel Robert Mueller, personally approved the searches. THE NEW YORK TIMES Another Republican, acting U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, reportedly recused himself from the New York raids. ABC NEWS Related: Contrasting the president’s angry reaction, Cohen says FBI agents were “professional, courteous and respectful” during searches. CNN Finally: Notes from DOJ official appear to back Comey, not Trump, in obstruction conflict. MSNBC
… And at the Justice Department, too. Trump reportedly sought to fire Mueller, again, in December. This is separate from another episode, earlier last year, where the president had to be talked out of trying to fire the special counsel. THE NEW YORK TIMES And Trump reportedly is on the verge of firing Rosenstein now in the wake of this week’s searches. CNN More: Professor Alan Dershowitz, fresh from dinner with Trump, says it would be a mistake for president to fire Mueller or pardon cronies. SLATE
Private prisons are particularly awful. And somehow still popular among politicians. Even though they are proven to be more dangerous for inmates and staff than publicly-run penitentiaries. Despite findings that show they save taxpayers little or no money. In the wake of hundreds of lawsuits and judicial findings that they deprive prisoners of their constitutional rights. THE NEW YORK TIMESTMP Context: When a small town’s private prison goes bust. THE MARSHALL PROJECT
Give us this day our daily profile of reform-minded prosecutors. Pamela Price, in Alameda County, and Geneviéve Jones-Wright, in San Diego County, are running insurgent races for district attorney in California. Both face June primaries. Both face Republican incumbents who have strong support from the law enforcement community. Both say it’s time for a change in the way prosecutors interact with the police on one hand and civilians on the other. THE INTERCEPT Related: A new look at other district attorney races around the country and the activists trying to shape them. NPR
The trauma of gun violence in New Orleans. It took years for America to appreciate the extent to which PTSD was affecting our military veterans on their return to civilian life. But those rates of illness are comparable with rates of PTSD among urban residents, young and black, who have grown up amid unremitting gun violence. The problem is particularly bad in Louisiana, where an unforgiving criminal justice system is matched with an underperforming public health apparatus. THE INVESTIGATIVE FUND/VICE
A man and his gun. Don’t tell Fabian Rodriguez that he can’t have an AR-15 assault rifle. Not only is he aware of his constitutional right to own the weapon, at least in his home state of Texas, he’s a gun enthusiast who revels in the gun culture that surrounds him. His mom isn’t crazy about the possibility that he’ll try to confront a shooter with the handgun he carries but Rodriguez says he can’t think of a more “honorable way to die” than by “trying to save people’s lives.” THE WASHINGTON POST
Tennessee lawmakers of both parties appear to be edging toward “sweeping” changes to the state’s 150-year-old “safekeeping” law, the one that keeps ill teenagers locked away in solitary confinement. THE TENNESSEAN TMP Context: Here’s our February report that helped push lawmakers to propose the pending legislation. THE MARSHALL PROJECT
At least 1,300 people have been held in Louisiana in pretrial detention for as long as four years, the state’s sheriffs association claims. The unsubstantiated claim seemed to catch the state’s public defenders, and the ACLU, off guard. THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
Think you have a tough job? Try being the administrator in Iowa tasked with combing through mental health case files to determine who could, and could not, bear arms in the state. THE TRACE
Catholic Church to Missouri lawmakers: Back off the latest round of gun laws designed to make it easier for parishioners to pack heat in the pews. ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
In California the backlash against sentencing reforms is picking up steam courtesy of victims’ rights groups and prosecutors. ASSOCIATED PRESS
An Alabama teenager convicted under the state’s dubious accomplice law was sentenced to 65 years in prison after he refused a plea offer of 25 years. USA TODAY
How much does the president trust his lawyer? Will Michael Cohen take the fall for Donald Trump in the wake of the FBI’s raids? Will he even need to? By Ken White. THE NEW YORK TIMES Related: When you treat Trump’s lawyer like a mob lawyer. THE DAILY BEAST A look at the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege. LAWFARE More: Did Trump bring trouble to Cohen? THE WASHINGTON POST So, you say you want to execute a federal search warrant? BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE Can Trump fire Mueller? No one knows. NBC NEWS Heading toward a cliff at increasing speed. LAWFARE
Speaking of gun control. The ATF is doing a slightly better job of making sure it’s not losing the guns it seizes. But only a slightly better job given all the past warnings it’s received from the Justice Department’s Inspector General. THE WASHINGTON POST Related:Time for the CDC to develop a comprehensive research agenda as a first step. PACIFIC STANDARD
Don’t let the NYPD end stop-and-frisk reforms. THE NEW YORK TIMES And don’t let it continue its war on marijuana, ether. NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Where is Stephon Clark’s statue? “Structures commemorating the likes of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile would not serve to intimidate, but to shame and deter.” ROLLING STONE
Prosecutorial misconduct in New Jersey. “Imagine having so little respect for justice and human life that you are willing to let two men rot in prison - and let the real killer go free - just to avoid admitting a mistake.” THE STAR-LEDGER
Hey, Joe Arpaio, your grandmother was a “chain migrant.” Turns out one of the nation’s most virulent foes of immigration is a hypocrite. MEDIUM.COM
Prison Program of the Day: In Arizona, prisoners train wild horses as part of a rehabilitation program. WBUR
Audio of the Day: In which former Milwaukee County sheriff David Clarke spars with his successor about who is to blame for jailhouse deaths. FOX6NOW.COM
Profile of the Day: Convicted of second-degree murder, Elizer Davis went to prison when he was 16 years old. Seventeen years later he’s free, changed, and working as a prison reform advocate. ST. CLOUD TIMES
Court Rule of the Day: The state of Washington has adopted a new rule on jury selection allowing defense attorneys to object to peremptory challenges they suspect are based on race. SUPREME COURT OF WASHINGTON
Documentary of the Day: Walter Ogrod, on death row in Pennsylvania, is hopeful that a new film that raises questions about his conviction will convince new Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner to reconsider the case. PHILLY.COM
Quote of the Day: Kern County (California) sheriff Donny Youngblood, seeking reelection, told a group of officers in 2006 that it’s better for the police to kill suspects, as opposed to only wounding them, because of the costs of rehabilitation. Video of the comments surfaced Monday. He says they are taken out of context. THE GUARDIAN
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