Tag: justice

Sinsheimer: AG, SBI face “a really big problem” (video)

August 18, 2010 at 2:05 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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Political watchdog Joe Sinsheimer says Attorney General Roy Cooper will have his hands full in restoring the reputation of the State Bureau of Investigation.

On Wednesday, an independent review by two former FBI officials found that analysts at North Carolina’s crime lab omitted, overstated or falsely reported blood evidence in dozens of cases. Here’s an excerpt from the audit:

The factors that contributed to these issues range from poorly crafted policy; lack of objectivity, the absence of clear report writing guidance; inattention to reporting methods that left too much discretion to the individual Analyst: lack of transparency; and ineffective management and oversight of the Forensic Biology Section from 1987 through 2003.

The review comes on the heels of an investigative series by the News & Observer highlighting agents who bent the rules to please prosecutors and laboratory practices out of step with the larger scientific community.

Not only could the findings impact thousands of cases, Sinsheimer believes it could cast a lasting doubt in the minds of some jurors in future cases.

This weekend on “News & Views” Sinsheimer discusses what all of this could mean for NC’s Attorney General and who will likely control the crime lab in the future. For a preview of his interview with Chris Fitzsimon, please click below:

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Click here to read the independent review of the SBI forensic laboratory.

Trail of Dreams: Walking for Change

April 7, 2010 at 12:45 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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Felipe Matos is among the top 20 community college students in America, but he’s ineligible for financial aid at the top universities that have accepted him. Gaby Pacheco has three education degrees and plans to use music therapy as a teaching tool for autistic children and adults. Brought to the United States at age 2, Carlos Roa wanted to join the military but could not because of his immigration status.

Three months ago, they embarked on Trail of Dreams, a 1,500 mile walk from Miami to Washington.  These students are facing much more than sore feet; several are undocumented, and they risk deportation and detention to share their stories and raise awareness about the need for just immigration reform.

These students exemplify why support is growing for the DREAM Act, federal legislation that would enable students brought to the U.S. at a young age to legally access higher education and financial aid. Every year, 65,000 students graduate U.S. high schools but are denied a college education because of our broken and unjust immigration system.  These students include valedictorians, class presidents and community leaders.  Yet they are refused the opportunity to further their education and give back to America — the country they see as their home.

Just graduating high school can be more challenging for undocumented students than for their peers; they often must learn English as a second language, take care of family responsibilities that their parents cannot manage without understanding English, overcome low socio-economic status and all that that entails, and cope with the psychological trauma of living in fear of deportation.

Trail of Dreams, which made its way through the Triangle last week, is a journey of hope for these students and the 12 million undocumented migrants in the United States.

For more information, check out the Southern Coalition for Social Justice’s Statement of Support.

Prison Abuse – When the Media Isn’t Watching

May 21, 2009 at 5:22 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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Reports of inmate abuse are flying fast and furious these days. 

In North Carolina, the sad saga of Timothy Helms has been unfolding for weeks in The News & Observer. It appears guards severely beat Helms, leaving him partially paralyzed. Last week we learned that guards doused the recuperating and wheelchair-bound Helms with pepper spray as he rattled a hospital room door at Central Prison.

In January, the News &Observer reported the allegations of an Anson County inmate that he was drenched with pepper spray and that guards wouldn’t allow him to wash off the burning chemicals or get prompt medical attention.  It’s enough to make one wonder what’s going on inside the prison walls when the media isn’t watching.

Even more troubling is that the state is moving in a direction that could lead to more reports of inmate abuse.  Legislators want to close several prisons and double-cell inmates to save money. At the same time, prison personnel are increasingly frustrated with pay cuts and longer hours. The elimination of popular rehabilitation programs won’t help matters.

A new coalition is organizing to help monitor prison conditions and advocate for the rights of inmates.  NC CURE, which already is looking into a plethora of letters from prisoners, is partnering with the Carolina Justice Policy Center to investigate those allegations even when the media isn’t watching.

Your Money or Your House

November 14, 2008 at 3:21 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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Does the bank foreclosing on your home own your promissory note? This question was once ridiculous, but in the face of securitized debt and asset-backed securities, it is, sadly, very relevant.

Lenders and debt buyers were (and I hope this isn’t news to anyone at this point) greedy and made money hand over fist for a while by selling mortgages and then moving them into loan trusts and then getting investors to buy stock in the trust funds. When the cycle of greed started to lose its spokes, the trust funds started to foreclose in huge numbers.

But the evidence that the trusts own the mortgages is often weak, and is sometimes a sham. The trust’s lawyer shows up a foreclosure hearing with an affidavit from the trust fund. The affidavit says that the trust owns the borrower’s promissory note. That’s it. In this seemingly alternate universe, I could walk into court tomorrow and swear that you owe me $100,000. And the court would allow me to take your home to pay myself. That’s all it takes. That’s all the proof necessary, at least in the clerk’s offices and courtrooms of North Carolina, to take someone’s home.

Now, you might think (if you’ve been sleeping Rip Van Winkle style) that the trust would only foreclose if it knew that it owned the promissory note. But you’d be wrong. Foreclosure proceedings were recently initiated by two DIFFERENT entities against a Florida woman; both entities claim to own the promissory note. There are plenty of local examples as well, but none that I know of have links to press coverage yet.

No entity or person should be permitted to foreclose on a home unless it can prove that the borrower actually owes it money.

A legal black hole at the county jail

September 6, 2008 at 3:02 pmCategory:Uncategorized

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A black hole.In response to swelling anti-immigrant hysteria across North Carolina, state law enforcement officials in seven counties and one city have signed up to use their own resources to help the federal government identify and deport undocumented immigrants.  So-called "287(g) agreements" with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), authorize certain officers in local police and sheriff's departments to enforce federal immigration laws.

Immigrants' rights advocates have principally criticized 287(g) agreements by arguing that they pose a serious threat to public safety: After all, if the police are going to fight crime effectively, they need the public's trust and cooperation. And it's pretty hard to convince undocumented immigrants to report crimes and assist in investigations if there isn't a clear distinction between the local police and federal immigration officials.  This is to say nothing of the fact that 287(g) agreements effectively commandeer limited state and local resources to enforce brutish federal immigration laws.

Now add this to the case against 287(g) agreements: The prospect of indefinite detention in county jails for people who are merely suspected of being undocumented immigrants.  An article in this week's Independent Weekly reports on the nightmarish bureaucratic limbo that is the Wake County 287(g) program:

Of the 321 inmates processed by Wake County's 287(g) officers since the program began earlier this summer, 201 were held for possible deportation. ICE spokesmen couldn't say how many were kept in custody past the 48-hour deadline… Immigration attorney Ricardo Vasquez, who has a client he says has languished in ICE custody for more than 70 days, says the problem starts at Wake County jail. If ICE places a hold on a prisoner's release, the magistrate may not issue a bond even though it's required by law. And when a bond has been issued, those trying to post it may be told they can't because of the ICE detainer — even if the detainer has expired.

So we have documented cases of people being held in Wake County jail under no lawful authority whatsoever.  This should be intolerable to anyone who thinks the government ought to follow its own laws, regardless of his or her position on U.S. immigration policy and enforcement.  Whether similar problems are occurring in the other counties with 287(g) agreements needs to be investigated.  However, the easiest, fastest, and most cost-effective way to solve this problem is to tell the feds they're on their own when it comes to enforcing ill-considered federal immigration policies.