Everyday Injustice

Rachelle Barbour has worked as an Assistant Federal Defender at the Sacramento federal court for over 20 years. She also heads up the CJS clinic at McGeorge Law School. Her most prominent case has been that of Iraqi refugee Omar Ameen, who was accused of being an ISIS commander and murdering a police officer in Iraq. He was acquitted of those charges in April as a federal judge ruled this was phys...

Sacramento in 2022 figures to be a hotbed for political intrigue. DA Anne Marie Schubert is running for AG leaving an open DA seat where a progressive – Alana Matthews will take on current Assistant Chief Deputy DA Thien Ho. Sheriff Jones is retiring. And there is a new police chief. Everyday Injustice talked with longtime attorney Mark Reichel to get the lay of the Sacramento landscape – discussi...

Senator Dave Cortese has sponsored some critical criminal justice reform efforts over the past term, including the current two year bill SB 300 which would allow for people sentenced to LWOP who were not the actual killers to have a chance at parole. Current California law mandates a sentence of death or life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) for anyone convicted of “murder with special cir...

This fall, attorneys for Nakia Porter filed a federal lawsuit for an incident on August 6, 2020 when she and her father were driving home on I-80. They stopped to switch drivers when the police intervened. At the press conference attorney Yasin Almadani explained that Porter, age 33 and weighing all of 125 pound “had done nothing wrong” when she was approached by the deputy and explained that they...

UC Davis Law Professor Jack Chin does just about everything and this week’s episode, we discuss the then recent Rittenhouse trial and guns and self-defense, the death penalty and Julius Jones, and the Sentencing Clinic he founded at UC Davis Law School working with the Yolo County DA’s office to reduce the lengthy sentences of incarcerated people.

In 2020, the Vanguard covered a series of hearings involving Zachary Vanderhorst, 65, who had been imprisoned for 46 years after guilty pleas he made 1974 for crimes he did not commit. A judge after a series of evidentiary hearings vacated the murder charges and Vanderhorst after 46 years was able to be released from prison. This year, a San Francisco judge vacated two of the remaining charges, in...

In 2020, Melba Pearson ran to attempt to unseat, unsuccessfully the 27 year incumbent prosecutor of Miami-Dade County. Now she is policy director of the FIU project that pushes for data transparency in prosecution, demonstrating racial disparities in the criminal legal system. Pearson discusses her campaign to reform the criminal legal system in Miami-Dade – including racial disparities and the fi...

On October 8, 2020, Shayne Sutherland, 29, died in a manner similar to George Floyd, with a police officer on his back, handcuffed, yelling, “I can’t breathe,” and calling out for his Momma. He had called 911 the morning of October 8, 2020. While being questioned in front of a store, Shayne jumped up after hearing a noise, only to be tackled by law enforcement. After close to three minutes of forc...

This spring after a long and at times bitter process, activists following the killing of George Floyd pushed for and finally got the city of Placerville to remove a noose from the city’s seal but the council opted to keep the Gold Rush-era nickname, “Hangtown.” The noose was probably not historical - and probably not incorporated into the city logos until the 1970s but is now widely considered a h...

It was once a poster child for things like Wrongful Convictions and the carceral state. But the Orleans DA has transformed his office - immediately dismissing over 400 cases that were prosecuted under his predecessor - a majority of those were drug related. When he ran for DA in 2020, Jason Williams, a former councilmember in New Orleans, pledged to free people from prison - already he “has grante...

Vanguard Court Watch is a unique and innovative program that trains college interns on the law and journalism, sends them into the courts where they report and monitor on injustice in the system. Listen as they tell their stories about what they see and what they have learned in the process.

While the public has become aware of how various aspects of the criminal legal system produce unjust results, one area that many are less aware of is that things seemingly as simple as fines and fees can devastate millions of Americans who are poor, end up in debt, lose their vehicles and other impacts. The Fines and Fees Justice has been working to identify the problems associated with fines and...

In 2020, San Joaquin District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar made headlines when she resigned from the California District Attorney Association (CDAA) after noting the organization has been opposing criminal justice reform for many years. While that action was notable enough, it was even more so because Verber Salazar is not a progressive liberal like much of the reform movement instead she is a lif...

Dr. Vilasni Ganesh in November will be heading off to prison for 63 months away from her husband and children. Her husband, also a doctor is facing a one-year sentence himself. In mixed verdict, she was convicted of fraudulent billing -as her attorney explains, without any evidence of wrongdoing or intent. The story as she and her attorney tell has so many layers. In her arguments to the Court of...

On September 15, 2021, Nakia Porter at a press conference spoke out publicly about her ordeal with Solano County police. Attorneys for Nakia Porter filed suit in Federal Court in Sacramento in August following an incident on August 6, 2020, where Porter and her father were driving from Oakland to their home in Sacramento. The vehicle was already stopped and in park when approached by Sheriff’s Dep...

Incumbent Alex Villanueva has become one of the most polarizing sheriff figures in the country. Now Eric Strong has emerged as a challenger to the incumbent. “Leadership. That crisis of leadership has interfered with a course of calls for a modern and more transparent LA County Sheriff’s Department. It has undermined our honorable profession’s ability to deliver on our promise of a more safe and a...

This week on Everyday Injustice featured women across the country whose loved ones were killed by police - whether it be sons, brothers, or partners. Marissa Barrera in 2017 lost her brother Michael in Woodland, California to a police incident. The DA cleared the officers of wrongdoing, but she and her family have taken the matter to civil court and video shows Michael Barrera at one point informi...

Family Outraged by Excited Delirium Diagnosis in Police Killing in Contra Costa County, California It may have been a scene reminiscent of George Floyd, but unless the California AG or Contra Costa DA step into this, the police may well get away with it after the coroner ruled accidental death in the death of 30-year-old Angelo Quinto, a Filipino male with a recent history of mental impairment. Qu...

Everyday Injustice Podcast Episode 121: Be the Jury - Pilot Would Pay Jurors $100 a Day To Serve One of the biggest problems in the criminal legal system is that the notion of being tried by a jury of one’s peers has been disgarded. A large number of people of color await trial in the system only to face a jury pool that is overly white, affluent, and retired. That is because working people and pe...

Cesar McDowell chronicles his journey from San Quentin to becoming, while still incarcerated, the co-founder and CEO of Unite The People Inc., a non profit organization that promotes social justice and offers affordable legal services throughout the state of California. After spending 20 years in prison and falling victim to the social inequality in our criminal justice system, McDowell founded hi...

Alana Mathews is running for DA for the office currently held by Anne Marie Schubert, who is not seeking re-election (and running for California AG). She graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta, becoming the first person in her family to earn a college degree. She went on to receive her law degree from McGeorge School of Law while raising her three children. While serving as a Deputy District At...

85 percent of those incarcerated will be released at some point. 7 in 10 people who are released will re-offend. If we are going to transform the criminal legal system, we need a better way to allow those who have been released to turn their lives around. Meet Leslie Robinson, Inventor of the Recharge Beyond the Bars Re-entry game, Leslie is a therapist in New York City, and she was a Consultant f...

On July 13, 2021, one of kind, radical attorney Tony Serra joined the Vanguard for a live webinar and podcast. At the age of 86, he is not only still practicing as an attorney but continues to have the drive and passion that has driven his long and storied career as an attorney. Listen as he discusses his career, some of the notable cases he has defended and the Chief Stankowitz case.

Santa Clara Public Defender Sajid Khan recently announced he was running for District Attorney. His announcement follows events of a year ago last summer when in response a pointed column by Khan, Santa Clara DA Jeff Rosen threatened to initiate a whistleblower retaliation proceedings against the Santa Clara County Deputy Public Defender. “Santa Clara County needs a true progressive as its Distric...

Donald Watson was convicted of felony murder but thanks to SB 1437, the law by Nancy Skinner, that allows people convicted of murder who were not the actual killer or major participants to petition for resentencing, Watson was able to get released from prison. During his time in prison, he had become a jailhouse lawyer and helped his fellow incarcerated individuals file motions and petitions. He h...