Author: scott prell

Mistrial Declared in Ex-Mich. Police Officer’s 2nd-Degree Murder Trial

A jury was hopelessly deadlocked in the trial of former Grand Rapids Police Officer Christopher Schurr, stemming from a 2022 traffic stop that ended in the fatal shooting of a 26-year-old man.

The murder trial for the Grand Rapids police officer who killed Patrick Lyoya has resulted in a hung jury.

A mistrial was declared after the jury hopelessly deadlocked on the second-degree murder charge against Christopher Schurr, the police officer who has since been fired. As a result, Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker will have to decide whether to refile charges against Schurr.

Read on HERE

Tyre Nichols verdict: 3 former Memphis officers acquitted in fatal beating of Tyre Nichols after he fled a traffic stop – ABC7 Los Angeles

Three former Memphis officers were acquitted Wednesday of state charges, including second-degree murder, in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols after he ran away from a traffic stop in 2023.

A jury took about 8 1/2 hours over two days to find Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith not guilty on all charges after a nine-day trial in state court in Memphis. After the jury’s verdict was read, the defendants hugged their lawyers as relatives of the former officers cried. One relative yelled, “Thank you, Jesus!”

The three defendants still face the prospect of years in prison after they were convicted of federal charges last year.

Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, fled a traffic stop after he was yanked out of his car, pepper-sprayed and hit with a Taser. Five officers who are also Black caught up with him and punched, kicked and hit Nichols with a police baton, struggling to handcuff him as he called out for his mother just steps from his home. Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating.
— Read on abc7.com/post/tyre-nichols-verdict-3-former-memphis-officers-acquitted-fatal-beating-he-fled-traffic-stop/16349930/

Why Eugene is ending its partnership with CAHOOTS crisis teams

After nearly three decades of working with CAHOOTS in various capacities, Eugene officials announced the city has cut ties with the mobile crisis intervention teams effective Monday.

The complete service reduction comes nearly two weeks after the White Bird Clinic announced it was temporarily reducing service hours for CAHOOTS mobile crisis teams in Eugene to one day a week while the organization navigates financial challenges.
— Read on www.registerguard.com/story/news/local/2025/04/08/why-eugene-is-ending-its-partnership-with-cahoots-crisis-teams/82978680007/

Abbott’s Bail Agenda Could Swell Texas Jails, Test U.S. Constitution

Edric Wilson spent 18 years awaiting a murder trial that would never come. From September 2006 until his release earlier this year, he split his time between the Harris County Jail and state psychiatric hospitals, with little or no hope of release. For 12 years, he was denied bail completely. Eventually, a judge set his bail at $850,000, which his family couldn’t afford. So he kept waiting. 
Texas jails around 70,000 people at any one time, and more than half are awaiting trial, per the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. A third of jail admissions nationwide are for misdemeanors, and nine out of the 10 most common charges are nonviolent, including drug offenses and failure to appear in court, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.
— Read on www.texasobserver.org/bail-legislature-abbott-jails/

The Fantasy of a World Without Police

Readers shouldn’t take Hudson’s presentation of these incidents as the warts-and-all truth, however. For example, in decrying cops’ use of riot-control tactics against Standing Rock protesters, who opposed a section of the Dakota Access Pipeline near a Native American reservation, she neglects to mention that the massive, lengthy protests involved road blockades and torched vehicles. In recounting how the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, launched a protest movement, she recalls that “hands up, don’t shoot!” became a “rallying cry” without admitting that the precipitating incident never happened.
— Read on www.city-journal.org/article/defund-the-police-black-lives-matter-sandy-hudson-book

Research at the DAO – PhilaDAO Data Dashboard

Research at the DAO
The DATA Lab at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office (DAO) uses police, court, and other data streams to support a wide range of research on the criminal legal system. Following are DAO DATA Lab grant-funded partnerships, DAO research publications and published and ongoing studies with research partners. We work with external partners across all phases of the research arc to help develop impactful interventions, evaluations, and scholarship. This includes discussions around data sharing, data use agreements, and facilitating research involving Assistant District Attorneys (ADAs) and DAO personnel.
— Read on data.philadao.com/Research

Racial Disparities, Total Traffic Stops in Vermont Dropped During COVID But Are Again Increasing Study Finds

Black and Hispanic drivers in Vermont continue to be stopped and searched at higher rates than white drivers. That’s according to new research examining thousands of traffic stops across Vermont.  

The research paper is the latest update to an ongoing analysis of racial disparities in traffic policing data across Vermont led by University of Vermont Economics Professor Stephanie Seguino, Cornell Professor Nancy Brooks and Data Analyst Pat Autilio.  

Previous statewide analyses were released in 2017 and 2021. They spurred conversation and, in some cases, racial bias training at some Vermont law enforcement agencies.  This update adds data from 2020-23 and examines both the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to investigate whether Black, Hispanic and Asian drivers in Vermont face racial disparities in traffic policing.
— Read on www.uvm.edu/gund/news/racial-disparities-total-traffic-stops-vermont-dropped-during-covid-are-again-increasing

Court Bars Border Patrol’s Unlawful Stop-and-Arrest Practices

Preliminary injunction applies to future Border Patrol operations in the Eastern District of California 

FRESNO—Today, in a win for civil rights amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, a federal district court in California issued a preliminary injunction barring U.S. Border Patrol from using stop-and-arrest practices that violate federal law and the U.S. Constitution. 

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston’s ruling in United Farm Workers v. Noem applies to future Border Patrol operations conducted in the Eastern District of California, which stretches inland from Bakersfield to the Oregon border. 

In her 88-page ruling, Judge Thurston noted: “practices employed by Border Patrol agents during ‘Operation Return to Sender’— including detentive stops on foot patrols and vehicular stops without reasonable suspicion—the plans of Border Patrol to perform additional, similar operations in this District and the seeming position of the government that Border Patrol agents are not currently trained on their obligations under the Fourth Amendment” demonstrated imminent, irreparable harm to the people affected by Border Patrol’s actions.   

Read more HERE

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston’s ruling in United Farm Workers v. Noem