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Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Former Florida Death-Row Prisoner Robert DuBoise Freed After DNA Proves His Innocence

A Florida trial court has freed a former death-row prisoner after local prosecutors said new DNA evidence had proven his innocence of the rape and murder for which he was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death 37 years ago.

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A Florida

trial court has freed a former death-row prisoner after local prosecutors said new DNA evidence had proven his innocence of the rape and murder for which he was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death 37 years ago.

Based on junk-science bite-mark evidence and false testimony from a prison informant, Robert DuBoise (pictured with his mother, Myra, following his release) was convicted of raping and murdering 19-year-old Barbara Grams. The jury unanimously recommended that DuBoise be sentenced to life, but his trial judge, Henry Lee Coe III, overrode their recommendation and sentenced DuBoise to be executed in Florida’s electric chair.

DuBoise was released from the Hardee Correctional Institution in Bowling Green, Florida, August 27, 2020, one day after Hillsborough prosecutors and lawyers from the national Innocence Project and the Innocence Project of Florida presented Circuit Judge Christopher Nash with evidence of his innocence. Working with State Attorney Andrew Warren’s Conviction Integrity Unit, the parties told the court that there was in fact no bite mark and that DNA evidence from an untested rape kit excluded DuBoise and implicated two other men.

In February 1988, the Florida Supreme Court overturned DuBoise’s death sentence, ruling that the trial court should not have overridden the jury’s sentencing recommendation and directing that DuBoise be resentenced to life imprisonment. Judge Nash reduced that sentence to time served and set a September 14 hearing date for the presentation of evidence to overturn his conviction.

DuBoise was greeted outside the prison by his mother, Myra, his sister, Harriet, and Innocence Project lawyer, Susan Friedman. After hugging his mother, he spoke to an assemblage of reporters and cameras.

“It’s a beautiful day,” he said.

Trump unleashes diatribe of falsehoods and baseless attacks in RNC finale

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Trump portrayed Biden as a creature of the Washington swamp, beat the drum of law and order and said little about racial injustice

You write him off at your peril. Donald Trump stood at one of America’s most hallowed spaces on Thursday – the White House – and bent it to his will, just as he has bent the Republican party and swaths of America.

Related: RNC: Trump paints Biden as a ‘radical’ candidate and a danger to America

Continue reading…

Families of Black Americans Killed by Police Had Too Many Names to Say at the March on Washington

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Black Americans who have lost loved ones to police brutality banded together Friday to commemorate the 57th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic March on Washington — and they had a lot of names to say. 

“I wish George was here to see this right now,” Floyd’s brother Philonise said. “That’s who we’re marching for. For George. For Breonna. For Ahmaud. For Jacob. For Pamela Turner and Michael Brown. For Trayvon. And anyone else who lost their lives to evil.”

The families of Jacob Blake, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, and others closed out three hours of speeches from politicians, union workers, entertainers and activists on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. More than 50,000 attendees packed onto the National Mall to listen before beginning the march to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. 

This year’s theme, “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks,” is a direct attack on police brutality and the killing of Black Americans. The relatives of those slain, many through tears, took to the podium to thank protestors for their support and share their condolences with others who share the same experience. 

The sister of Jacob Blake, the unarmed black man who was shot and paralyzed by Milwaukee Police Sunday, spoke directly to Americans who oppose the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I’m here to tell you in front of the world, that you’ve got the right one,” Blake’s sister Letetra Widman said. “We will not be your docile slave. We will not be your footstool to oppression. Most of all, we will not dress up this genocide and call it police brutality.”

Others, including Jacob Blake Sr., expressed mental exhaustion over the repeated slayings of black Americans by police.

“There are two systems of justice in the U.S., there’s a white system, and there’s a black system,” Jacob Blake Sr. said, calling out the killers of George Floyd, Amadou Diallo, and others. “The Black system ain’t doing so well. I’m tired of looking at camera [footage] and seeing these young black and brown people suffer.”

“I am tired of learning new names and adding new hashtags to an already long list of victims of police terror,” Botham Jean’s sister Alissa Finley echoed, invoking the names of Sandra Bland, Antwon Rose, Terence Crutcher and others.

Voting rights were also a big topic at the march this year, as USPS continues to make drastic changes that have slowed the mail, just months before a historic election where more people are voting absentee than ever before because of the threat of coronavirus. The son of Eric Garner challenged people to take to the polls this November.

“It’s been six years since my father’s words became our words,” Garner Jr. said, referring to his dad’s dying words, ‘I Can’t Breathe,’ which has since become a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement. “We have to make a change. I am challenging the young people to go out and vote. Change is possible, we just have to put in the work.”

Political action was another common theme for speakers Friday. Democratic Vice President nominee Kamala Harris, Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Martin Luther King Jr. III all implored people to not only vote, but to support legislation like the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

The night before Friday’s March on Washington, President Trump accepted his nomination at the RNC with a rambling, hour-and-ten-minute speech that blamed Democrats and the Black Lives Matter movement for violent protests and riots across the country in the wake of Black Americans who have died at the hands of police.

For second time, federal judge finds Texas is violating voter registration law

A federal judge found Texas is “legally obligated” to allow voters to simultaneously register to vote with every driver’s license renewal or change-of-address application, and ordered the state to set up a “fully operable” online system by Sept. 23. Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune
People in line to cast their vote at a South Austin early voting location on Nov. 2, 2018.

A federal judge found Texas is “legally obligated” to allow voters to simultaneously register to vote with every driver’s license renewal or change-of-address application, and ordered the state to set up a “fully operable” online system by Sept. 23.

Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune

A persistent Texas voter, twice thwarted when he tried registering to vote while renewing his driver’s license online, has for the second time convinced a federal judge that the state is violating federal law.

In a 68-page ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia of San Antonio found that Texas continues to violate the federal National Voter Registration Act by not allowing residents to register to vote when they update their driver’s license information online. It’s the second time Garcia has sided with former English professor Jarrod Stringer. Garcia’s first ruling was overturned on appeal on a technicality.

The National Voter Registration Act requires states to let residents complete their voter registration applications when they apply for or renew their driver’s licenses. But Texas officials have staunchly opposed any form of online registration.

The Texas Department of Public Safety follows federal law when residents visit a driver’s license office in person. But Texans who try to register while using the state’s online portal are instead directed to a blank registration form they must fill out, print and send to their county registrar.

Garcia found that DPS is “legally obligated” to allow voters to simultaneously register to vote with every license renewal or change-of-address application, and ordered the state to set up a “fully operable” online system by Sept. 23. The Texas attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the state is likely to appeal the ruling.

“DPS encourages Texans to use its online services to renew their driver’s license and change their address because it is easier and more convenient,” Garcia wrote. “It cannot, at the same time, deny simultaneous voter registration applications when those online services are used.”

Garcia has said this before. In 2018, he ordered the state to implement what would be its first system for online voter registration. A federal appeals court overturned that order in late 2019 because Stringer and his two co-plaintiffs had ultimately reregistered to vote, and the court decided the case was moot because they were no longer being harmed.

Although the appellate court tossed the case, Judge James Ho of the 5th U.S. Circuit of Appeals wrote in the decision that Stringer’s lost vote was a right he “will never be able to recover.”

“As citizens, we can hope it is a deprivation they will not experience again,” Ho said.

But just 10 days after the admonishment, Stringer again was unable to update his voter registration along with his driver’s license after a move to Houston. Stringer and other frustrated Texans opened the latest chapter of the online voter registration fight by filing a second lawsuit in January.

On Friday, Garcia found that Texas had “offered no factual or legal argument that would justify denying the simultaneous voter registration to which Mr. Stringer is legally entitled.”

“As Defendants have admitted, there are no technological barriers to compliance and corrective measures would not be costly,” Garcia wrote. “Uncontested expert testimony shows that a compliant DPS system would very likely lead to great efficiency, less human error, a massive saving in costs, and increased voter registration.

The issue has become an albatross for Texas Republican officials trying to fend off any form of online voter registration.

At least 1.5 million Texans use the state’s online driver’s license portal a year, according to Stringer’s lawyers, though it’s unclear how many also attempt to reregister to vote. The coronavirus pandemic, which forced Texans to seek out many DPS services online instead of in person, “further underscores that the state has no plausible rationale that I could even imagine to appeal the case,” said Mimi Marziani, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, which is representing Stringer.

“The court has been incredibly clear now over several years that the state is violating federal law,” Marziani said. “And they have no justification for doing so.”

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Coronavirus: France sees ‘exponential rise’ in cases

Shortly before Friday’s figures were released, Mr Macron said a second national lockdown could not be ruled out if infections spiralled out of control.

However he said his government was trying to avoid the return of restrictions that would set back the country’s fragile economic recovery.

“Containment is the crudest of measures to fight against a virus,” said Mr Macron, urging people to be “collectively very rigorous”.

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The country records 7,379 new cases on Friday as President Macron warns of another lockdown.

Zuckerberg explains Facebook failure to remove Kenosha militia page (Profits first strikes again)

Zuckerberg said Facebook is now proactively looking for content that praises the alleged shooter and the shooting. However, a Thursday report from The Guardian found that there were still several posts celebrating the alleged shooter and the shooting across Facebook, despite that being in violation of the company’s policies.   

“We’re going to continue to enforce our policies and continue evolving the policies to be able to identify more potential dangerous organizations and improve our execution in order to keep on getting ahead of this,” Zuckerberg said. “I think that this shows that there is a real risk and a continued increased risk through the election during this very sensitive and polarized and just highly charged time.”

 

Source: Zuckerberg explains Facebook failure to remove Kenosha militia page