Our title is a paraphrase of a very familiar refrain written by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1837 in a poem Concord Hymn, commemorating the first round of fire in the American Revolution in Concord, Mass. The term has been applied… Read More ›
prosecutors
Gideon’s Trumpet Continues to Blare
Unlike Gideon’s biblical victory over a larger army (Judges 7:16-22), neither Virginia’s nor the nation’s criminal justice system has succeeded to a clear and convincing standard of equal justice for all. Virginia’s experience with the frailties and inconsistencies of its… Read More ›
Brief Cases
WATER BALLOONS DAMPEN CIVIC DISCUSSION It was all set. Richmond residents, local elected officials, and community organizers gathered on the medians on Monument Avenue to discuss citywide issues, including public safety and criminal justice, mental health and healthcare, housing, and… Read More ›
VA Parole Board Decisions Cast Shadow
Editors’ Note: Excerpted from the Virginia Mercury, August 7, 2020. Editors’ Comment: Last week (Tough on Crime, Rough on Justice; https://wp.me/p9wDCF-1Em), VoxFairfax posted a story concerning the Commonwealth’s public policies on incarceration, prison, and criminal justice, as these are subject to… Read More ›
Tough on Crime, Rough on Justice
It was August 1994 and Virginia Gov. George Allen’s administration had devised a vigorous “tough on crime” plan, estimated to cost $850 million, that would abolish parole, increase sentences for violent criminals by as much as 700 percent, and require… Read More ›
Around the Novahood
PWC ESTABLISHES PUBLIC DEFENDER Virginia’s second-most-populous jurisdiction, and the only Virginia county that is majority-people of color, Prince William County, has lacked a public defender’s office. It relied, instead on a system of poorly compensated, court-appointed counsel to represent low-income defendants…. Read More ›
Brief Cases
MERCY FOR LAMESTREAMERS IN LIBERTY U SPAT Lynchburg prosecutors last week announced their decision not to pursue criminal charges against two journalists who Liberty University police accused of trespassing on campus while covering the school’s response to the coronavirus pandemic…. Read More ›
Beyond Reasonable Doubt
For nearly 300 years following its founding until 1909, Virginia’s capital punishment preference was hanging. Up to 1918, another 90 individuals were dispatched by lynching, sometime characterized by the euphemistic term “extra-judicial” procedure. In a race to lead, Virginia has… Read More ›
Scales of Criminal Justice Tilted by Wage Disparity
The relationship between poverty and the nation’s prison and jail population has been adequately demonstrated by research studies. Less appreciated are the more nuanced, subtle governmental decisions that exacerbate that relationship, and which we are slowly coming to realize are… Read More ›
Brief Cases
Brief Cases is published occasionally to update information on previously published articles and/or to add comment upon them. Sometimes the content will be new, particularly as the material is deemed to be of note. CUCCINELLI APPOINTMENT TO TOP IMMIGRATION JOB… Read More ›