This Week Injustice- May 26, 2024

Memorial Day edition

A bucket of strawberries picked this week at Deloach Farms in Shelby County, AL.

I hope you’re all having a relaxing and enjoyable weekend.

As we drift into the humid stupor of summer, I am seeking ways to enjoy the season, even though I dislike sweaty weather.

This week I picked strawberries at Deloach Farms in Shelby County. I highly recommend.

The berries were plentiful, juicy and sweet (and pesticide free!) plus the folks who work there are super friendly. My daughter and I brought home two buckets full and I made strawberry jam, then a few tiny strawberry cakes.

I wish the headlines this week were as sweet as strawberries. I wish the summer wasn’t bookended with two scheduled executions. One is next week: Thursday, May 30th, Alabama plans to kill Jamie Mills.

From PHADP: Contact Gov. Ivey here: http://governor.alabama.gov/contact/

The group is also hosting a pre-execution rally on Tuesday May 28 at noon at the capital steps in Montgomery. My heart is with everyone involved.

Take care of yourselves. Find something sweet in the world, even when it feels impossible.

Here’s the stories I pinned this week.

ADOC/POLICY 

This feels like a broken record. Despite being presented with various solutions, Alabama lawmakers largely avoid addressing the state’s unconstitutional prisons. 

Latest in Alabama Media’s series on the busted parole board profiles a man the board sent back to prison for missing a meeting, then denied his release, setting his next hearing off five years. Miraculously, he survived the five years and they granted his parole last week in a 2-1 vote. Guess who voted no? (ANSWER: Leigh Gwathney)

An Escambia County man was awarded $400K by a federal jury in a lawsuit against a prison doctor at Fountain Prison. The doctor’s indifference, the man argued, led to the amputation of his foot. The jury agreed.

This study makes my heart hurt. Alabama leads the nation in doling out death in prison aka life without parole to children convicted of crimes. 

Here’s coverage of UAB severing its autopsy contract with ADOC after lawsuits claim the agencies stole organs from people who died in state prisons. 

This update on the latest ADOC quarterly report shows sexual assaults in ADOC are up while assaults and deaths are slightly down. That’s not saying much when the mortality rate is five times the national average.

DEATH PENALTY

Jefferson County’s DA Danny Carr files a new brief urging the court to order a new trial for Toforest Johnson. This brief contains supplemental information after Carr first called for a new trial in 2020. “This conviction and death sentence cannot be justified or allowed to stand,” Carr wrote. Here’s a clip of Toforest’s youngest daughter, Muffin reacting to the news.

And if you’re looking for a good podcast to listen to this summer, I unpack how Toforest Johnson ended up on Alabama’s death row and why he’s still there in the series called Earwitness, available for free on all platforms!

Sad coverage of Jamie Mills’ upcoming execution date: A federal judge rejects his claim of innocence and another calls the timing of lawsuit over lethal injection “inexplicable and inexcusable.” 

A strong critique against Alabama and Louisiana showing their “barbarity” by adding nitrogen suffocation to execution methods. 

Bill Britt wrote a column calling capital punishment “A stain on Alabama’s justice system.” 

And sadly, death sentences are still being handed out. Prosecutors in Morgan County announce they are seeking the death penalty in a case from 2020. 

POLICING

Big brother will be watching: Birmingham police will install over 300 cameras to put public places under surveillance. This “partnership” with Alabama Power will cost an eye-popping $90K a month. 

The Birmingham city council approves a plan to use citizen patrols despite concerns about safety. 

The former police chief of embattled Brookside pleads guilty to flashing his old badge to try to get out of a traffic ticket. He’ll be barred from future jobs in law enforcement. John Archibald frames it as getting a $25 fine instead of prison. 

Report on Tarrant’s police chief includes allegations of discrimination by employees, but the city council rejects mayor’s effort to fire the chief. Whew. Tarrant’s bringing the drama. 

This story made headlines nationally: An Alabama driver was threatened with jail time for not apologizing to police.