Pentagon: Estimated 26,000 Military Sexual Assaults in 2012, Over 70 Sex Crimes Per Day -By Hayes Brown | ThinkProgress

Just one day after the Air Force’s chief of sexual assault prevention was arrested for sexual assault himself, a new Pentagon report shows a sharp increase in the estimated number of assaults in the military annually.

The report from the Department of Defense’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office for Fiscal Year 2012 found a 6 percent rise in reported assaults over the last year, for a total of 3,374. But much more troubling is the estimated number of sexual assault incidents that were never officially reported. In last year’s report, there were an estimated 19,000 instances, but this year the number has jumped to an unprecedented 26,000 instances of assault, leaving thousands unreported.

The disparity in the total number of instances of Military Sexual Trauma (MST) compared to those fully reported — where the victim fills out an official report and action is taken — can be seen as being due to victims’ fears of retaliation, including possible discharge from service or being overlooked for a promotion. The new results line up with those seen in a 2011 Pentagon health survey released in April. According to that report, more female service members were willing to come forward about sexual abuse and assault, with roughly one in five women saying they were victims of unwanted sexual contact from another member of the military, but under reporting remains a serious issue.

“Sexual assault has no place in the United States military,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said in a statement released Monday night in reponse to news that Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski, the Air Forces’s chief of sexual assault prevention, had been arrested on charges of sexual assault. “The American people, including our service members, should expect a culture of absolutely no tolerance for this deplorable behavior that violates not only the law, but basic principles of respect, honor, and dignity in our society and its military.”

Despite that pledge, assault and abuse in the military has been under increased scrutiny in recent months, following a series of high-profile scandals. In February, Lt. Col. James Wilkerson was reinstated into service after an Air Force general overturned a jury, voiding Wilkerson’s sexual assault conviction. In 2012, Lackland Air Force base saw 12 instructors investigated for sexual misconduct toward 31 trainees, with at least one trainer sentenced to twenty years for rape and sexual assault. Army Gen. Jeffery Sinclair was likewise charged in 2012 with sexually assaulting a female subordinate, then threatening her career if she went public.

On Monday, a female Air Force general — Lt. Gen. Susan Helms — found her career in question after a hold was placed on her nomination to become vice commander of Space Command. The reason? Her decision to overturn a case of aggravated sexual assault, much in the same fashion as seen in the Wilkerson case. Legislation is currently on the Hill to strike the ability of generals to overturn jury cases in instances of sexual assault, but the underlying problem remains.

To correct that problem, Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) will introduce the Combat Military Sexual Assault (MSA) Act of 2013 in the Senate on Tuesday. “It’s inexcusable for us to wait any longer to address this issue and I’m glad this bipartisan legislation is taking meaningful steps to do right by our nation’s heroes,”Murray said in a statement.

Reprint: Pentagon: Estimated 26,000 Sexual Assaults in Military Last Year -By Hayes Brown|ThinkProgress

Official Report: Pentagon Report on Sexual Assaults in the Military in 2012 (PDF)

---

Related: Pentagon Study Finds 26,000 Military Sexual Assaults Last Year, Over 70 Sex Crimes Per Day | Democracy Now (Full Video)

Sexual Assaults in Military Raise Alarm in Washington –By Jennifer Steinhauer | NYT

U.S. Air Force Sex Assault Prevention Chief Charged with Sex Assault –By Matt Pearce | L.A. Times

Army Sergeant Assigned to Sex Abuse Prevention Being Investigated for Pimping, Sexual Assault –By Courtney Kube & Jeff Black | NBC News

 

Willie J. Manning Granted Stay of Execution -By Andrew Cohen | The Atlantic

By a vote of 8-1, the Supreme Court of Mississippi this afternoon halted the scheduled execution of Willie Manning just hours before the convicted murderer was to be put to death by lethal injection at the Parchman prison in Sunflower. In their brief order, which you can read for yourself here, the justices did not give any reason for blocking the execution, and it is unclear at this time exactly how the case will proceed from here.

Manning, who is black, was convicted in 1994 for the murder of two white university students in 1992. He has maintained his innocence ever since, amid troublesome (and growing) questions about the accuracy and reliability of the evidence on which his conviction and death sentence are based. Manning’s long-ago trial was marked by racial bias in jury selection, for example, and a jailhouse informant, who incriminated Manning in 1994, has since sought to recant his trial testimony.

But the Mississippi court’s order Tuesday is likely based upon the scientific evidence that was and was not introduced at trial. Manning’s attorneys have long argued that state officials should test DNA and fingerprint evidence from the crime scene — evidence that has never been tested and that would either incriminate Manning definitively or perhaps identify someone else who may have committed the crimes. The state has consistently refused to undertake this testing even though the FBI has offered to do it, and Mississippi has a remarkable recent record of exonerating criminal defendants in such a fashion.

As a matter of law, the absence of this testing from a shaky case like this was likely enough to warrant a stay of Manning’s execution. But the state’s refusal to test its DNA evidence was made even more pronounced over the past few days by the intervention of federal officials. Since May 2, the Justice Department has sent three letters to the attorneys in the case announcing that the feds now are backing away from the “ballistics” and “hair fiber” testimony their so-called “expert” testified about at Manning’s trial. State prosecutors heavily relied on that now-discredited evidence at trial — as have state court judges ever since — as proof that Manning’s conviction was secure enough to warrant his execution.

The state came within four hours of executing Manning despite the conceded inaccuracy and unreliability of the scientific evidence against him, despite the willingness of a jailhouse informant to recant, despite racial bias in jury selection. It came within hours of executing the man, even though the scientific evidence that could exonerate him was never tested. No matter what happens now — and don’t forget Manning is still a long way from being out of trouble — it is a credit to the eight Mississippi justices who voted for the stay that they were willing to change their minds about this case. Last month, by a vote of 5-4, this same court refused to require the DNA testing.

Excerpt, read: Hours Before Execution, a State Court Grants Willie Manning a Stay  -By Andrew Cohen | The Atlantic

Related: Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Writes a Remarkable Political ‘Dissent’ To Willie Manning’s Stay of Execution –By Radley Balko | HuffPost

 

Civilian Death Toll Soars in the Gaza Strip | AP

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Israeli aircraft struck crowded areas in the Gaza Strip and killed a senior militant with a missile strike on a media center Monday, driving up the Palestinian death toll to 100, as Israel broadened its targets in the 6-day-old offensive.

Despite being the initial aggressor, the Israeli military insists its strikes target only militants — with surgical precision — and they say they’re hitting those targets. But reports coming out of the the Gaza Strip tell a completely different story. The Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on the planet, and civilian casualties are inevitably mounting.

Escalating its bombing campaign over the weekend, Israel began attacking homes of activists in Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza. These attacks have led to a sharp spike in civilian casualties, killing 24 civilians in just under two days and doubling the number of civilians killed in the conflict, a Gaza health official said.

On Monday Israel dropped two bombs on the police headquarters, completely destroying the building. According to Israel, the police headquarters was a legitimate target; considered part of the Hamas security apparatus, and it was a surgical strike, but the Israeli missiles blew out all the windows of homes nearby. There’s a reason the Isreali military attacks at night. With such a ferocious explosion, anybody on the street would likely have been killed.

Israeli military sources said the IDF caused severe damage to dozens of targets Monday, including underground rocket launchers, a training facility, a police station and an ammunition storage facility. They said Israel also targeted and hit a vehicle used for carrying weapons as well as 50 smuggling tunnels.

Hamas fighters have fired hundreds of rockets into Israel in the current round of fighting, including 95 on Monday, among them one that hit an empty school. Schools in southern Israel have been closed since the start of the offensive Wednesday. Twenty-nine (29) rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile battery, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Rockets landed in open areas of Beersheva, Ashdod, Asheklon.

The rising toll came as Egyptian-led efforts to mediate a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas got into gear.

Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi has said repeatedly that he’s hopeful a ceasefire agreement can be reached quickly, but a source close to the Hamas delegation in Cairo told CBS News correspondent Clarissa Ward on Monday morning that, thus far, the talks had hit a brick wall.

Ward says part of the reason for the impasse may be that Hamas is making some big demands in exchange for stopping its rocket attacks on Israel — it wants an end to Israel’s five year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which Israel is unlikely to budge on due to fears that it would lead to an influx of weapons to militants inside Gaza.

While Israel and Hamas were far apart in their demands, both sides said they were open to a diplomatic solution — and prepared for further escalation if that failed.

The leader of Hamas took a tough stance, rejecting Israel’s demands that the militant group stop its rocket fire. Instead, Khaled Mashaal said, Israel must meet Hamas’ demands for a lifting of the blockade of Gaza.

“We don’t accept Israeli conditions because it is the aggressor,” he told reporters in Egypt. “We want a cease-fire along with meeting our demands.”

An Israeli official said Israel hoped to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis as well and signaled Egypt was likely to play a key role in enforcing any truce.

“We prefer the diplomatic solution if it’s possible. If we see it’s not going to bear fruit, we can escalate,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive diplomatic efforts underway.

The official said Israel doesn’t want a “quick fix” that will result in renewed fighting months down the road. Instead, Israel wants “international guarantees” that Hamas will not rearm or use Egypt’s neighboring Sinai peninsula for militant activity.

A poll published in the Haaretz daily on Monday showed widespread support in Israel for the offensive. It said that 84 percent of the public supports the operation, with 12 percent opposed. At the same time, it said just 30 percent of the public supports a ground invasion of Gaza. The poll, conducted by the Dialog agency, surveyed 520 people and had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

Overall, the offensive that began Wednesday killed 100 Palestinians, including 53 civilians, and wounded some 840 people, Gaza heath official Ashraf al-Kidra said. Among the wounded were 225 children, he said.

On the Israeli side, three civilians have died from Palestinian rocket fire and dozens have been wounded. The rocket-defense system has intercepted hundreds of rockets bound for populated areas.

In Monday’s violence, an Israeli air strike on a high-rise building in Gaza City killed Ramez Harb, a senior figure in Islamic Jihad’s military wing, the Al Quds Brigades, the group said in a text message to reporters. A number of foreign and local news organizations have offices in the building, which was also struck on Sunday. A passer-by was also killed, medics said.

Thick black smoke rose from the building. Paramedics said several people were wounded.

Islamic Jihad, a smaller sister group to Hamas, said it believed Harb was the target of the strike.

Israel has killed dozens of wanted militants in surgical strikes throughout the operation, the result, officials say, of intelligence gathered from its collection of high-flying drones overhead and a network of informants.

Before dawn Monday, a missile struck a three-story home in the Gaza City’s Zeitoun area, flattening the building and badly damaging several nearby homes. Shell-shocked residents searching for belongings climbed over debris of twisted metal and cement blocks in the street.

Egypt is trying to broker a cease-fire with the help of Turkey and Qatar. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and a delegation of Arab foreign ministers were expected in Gaza on Tuesday.

A senior Egyptian official told The Associated Press that Hamas and Israel were each presenting Egypt with their conditions for a cease-fire.

“I hope that by the end of the day we will receive a final signal of what can be achieved,” said the official, who is familiar with the indirect negotiations. He said Israel and Hamas are both looking for guarantees to ensure a long-term stop to hostilities. The official says Egypt’s aim is to stop the fighting and “find a direct way to lift the siege of Gaza.”

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the indirect negotiations.

The rising toll was likely to intensify pressure on Israel to end the fighting. Hundreds of civilian casualties in an Israeli offensive in Gaza four years ago led to fierce international condemnation of Israel.

But Mashaal said Gazans were prepared to keep fighting.

“Gaza’s demand is not a halt to war. Its demand is for its legitimate rights,” including a stop to Israeli attacks, assassinations and a lifting of the blockade, Mashaal said.

Reprint Source: Israel Airstrike Hits Al Aqsa, Hamas TV Station, In High-Rise In Downtown Gaza City -By Hamza Hendawi, Maggie Michael (Cairo) & Zeina Karam (Beiruit) | HuffPost/AP

Related: Israel Targets Gaza Militants Homes, Sending Civilian Death Toll Soaring Amid Frantic Diplomacy | CBS/AP

Hamas Kills 6 Suspected Israeli Collaborators -By Karin Laub & Ian Deitch | HuffPost/AP

—————————————————-

*The author of this blog made few minor, but necessary, changes to the article to reflect the most recent data available. She also removed language that was factually dubious or words that suggest a western media bias towards its allies.

 

Bahrain: Free Nabeel Rajab!

Bahrain’s court of appeal should overturn a lower court conviction for illegal assembly against the human rights activist Nabeel Rajab and cancel his three-year prison term, according to a recent Human Rights Watch press release. Because the authorities have presented no evidence that he advocated or participated in violence, his conviction is a violation of his right to freedom of peaceful assembly, Human Rights Watch said. The court was scheduled to hear Rajab’s appeal on October 16, 2012, but the appellate court postponed the hearing and denied a petition filed by Rajab’s lawyer challenging the legality of the laws prohibiting demonstrations. A new hearing has been scheduled for December 11, 2012.

A criminal court sentenced Rajab on August 16 to three years in prison for organizing and participating in three demonstrations between January and March 2012. Rajab is president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and a member of the advisory committee of the Human Rights Watch Middle East and North Africa Division.“The criminal court verdict cites no evidence – not even an allegation– that Nabeel Rajab participated in or advocated violent protests,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “He has the basic right to peaceful assembly and shouldn’t be sent to prison for that.”

The Public Prosecution Office charged Rajab under article 178 of the Penal Code, which prohibits unauthorized gatherings of five or more people in a public place with the “purpose of committing crimes” or “undermining public security, even if intended to achieve legitimate purpose.”

A public prosecution official told Bahraini media that that Rajab had incited violence. The government also posted videos of some protests on YouTube, claiming, “You will find…defendant Nabeel Rajab violating the law.” Those videos appear to confirm that the protests were peaceful and do not capture any incitement to violence by Rajab or otherwise support the allegation made by the public prosecutor.

No such evidence is cited in the court’s verdicts in the three cases. In the case numbered 07291204947, police testified that after they dispersed an “illegal demonstration” on January 12, some people threw stones and Molotov cocktails at “special forces” and blocked the road with metal containers. One officer testified that he saw Rajab leading a march of 10 to 15 people “chanting for the release of political detainees.” But the verdict cites no evidence suggesting that Rajab was involved in the violence that police alleged occurred or that he incited such acts.

In the case numbered 07201203460, according to the verdict, about 15 people including Rajab had organized in a march on an unspecified date in February and that the protesters, except Rajab and three others, dispersed when police ordered them to. Police then arrested Rajab and allegedly found messages on his mobile phone calling “for participation in unlicensed marches, including the march at which he was arrested.” The verdict contains no conclusion that any crime or public security disturbance had occurred and does not cite any evidence for reaching such a conclusion.

The verdict in the case numbered 07201205263 stated that Rajab had called for and participated in an unauthorized gathering of about 50 people on March 31. The court said the protesters did not respond to orders to disperse, but the verdict does not mention any public disturbance, violent activity, or incitement to violence by Rajab or anyone else.

Authorities have previously prosecuted Rajab on politically motivated charges. He was detained from May 5 to May 28 for Twitter remarks criticizing the Interior Ministry for failing to investigate attacks by what Rajab said were pro-government armed gangs against Shia residents. On June 28 a criminal court fined him 300 Bahraini Dinars (US$790) in that case. A court of appeal will review the verdict on November 27.

Authorities again detained Rajab on June 6 for another Twitter remark calling for the prime minister to step down. On July 9 a criminal court convicted and sentenced him to three months in prison. A court of appeal overturned that verdict on August 23, but Rajab remained in prison following the August 16 convictions.

Bahraini authorities have given permits for some opposition rallies over the past year, but a great number of applications for permits have been denied, Human Rights Watch said.

“It is hard to avoid concluding that Nabeel Rajab’s convictions and three-year sentence for illegal assembly represent politically motivated punishment for his insistence on exercising rights that are protected both by international treaties to which Bahrain is a party and Bahrain’s constitution,” Stork said. “The appeals court should vacate the convictions and free him immediately.”

Reprint: Bahrain: Overturn Rights’ Activists Conviction| Human Rights Watch

Related: Woman Hits “Like” on Facebook, Gets Arrested in India -By Shivam Vij | CS Monitor

Nabeel Rajab Arrested After Tweeting About Assange | Russia Today (Video)

Free Bahraini Activists Nabeel Rajab & Zainab Alkhawaja Urge End to U.S.-Backed Crackdown -By Amy Goodman | Democracy Now! (Video)

Take Action For Rajab Nabeel (Amnesty Int’l Campaign)

 

CRIME AFTER CRIME| Documentary (Video)

Filmed over the course of six years, “Crime After Crime” follows the dramatic legal battle to free Debbie Peagler, a survivor of domestic violence who spent more than 26 years in prison.

In 1983, Debbie Peagler was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder, despite many factors indicating that she should not have been charged with the crime in the first place. But Debbie’s case is not one of mistaken identity or a matter of simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Instead, Debbie was a victim of domestic violence who had tried to escape her abuser many times, even turning to police (who were of little help). When two men who Debbie had asked to protect her killed her abuser, she was charged with first-degree murder and threatened with the death penalty.

To avoid that sentence, Debbie entered a guilty plea so that she would “only” be sentenced to life in prison, and not the death penalty. With only a slim chance at being released on parole, Debbie never thought she would see her two daughters outside of prison again – until a new law offered a ray of hope. Two decades after her incarceration began, California became the first state to allow domestic violence cases like Debbie’s to be reopened.

Two land use attorneys (Joshua Safran and Nadia Costa) decided to take on her case pro bono. They soon uncovered a trail of prosecutorial misconduct that began with Debbie’s arrest and continue to the present day. Their discoveries sent Debbie’s case into the headlines and launched a movement that not only advocated for her own freedom, but also raised a banner for battered women and the wrongfully imprisoned around the globe.

Over 80% of the 120,000 women in U.S. prisons are victims of rape, incest or other forms of abuse. Yet, California remains the only state that allows incarcerated victims of abuse to petition for their freedom. But now similar laws are now brewing in five states including New York, where it looks poised to pass.

Directed by Yoav Potash

Synopsis by Sidney Hillman Foundation

CRIME AFTER CRIME  (Website)
 
 

 

Marvin Wilson’s Execution: Texas Ignores Supreme Court & Puts Man with 61 IQ to Death -By John Rudolf | HuffPost

Marvin Wilson, a 54 year old man with an IQ of 61, was executed by the State of Texas on Tuesday, August 7, 2012 (Photo: Texas Department of Corrections)

Texas authorities executed Marvin Wilson, a 54-year-old death row inmate, on Tuesday night after his attorneys failed to convince state and federal courts that he was mentally retarded and ineligible for the death penalty under a 2002 Supreme Court ruling.

Wilson was declared dead at 6:27 p.m. local time. He cried out to his gathered family members as he expired, Texas officials said.

“Give mom a hug for me and tell her that I love her,” Wilson said.

“Take me home, Jesus. Take me home, Lord,” he continued. “I ain’t left yet, must be a miracle. I am a miracle.”

The Supreme Court late in the afternoon rejected without comment a last-ditch appeal by Wilson’s lawyers, clearing the way for his death by lethal injection. The appeal cited a 2004 psychological exam that pegged Wilson’s IQ at just 61. The Texas benchmark for mental retardation is an IQ of about 70 or less.

“We are gravely disappointed and profoundly saddened that the United States Supreme Court has refused to intervene,” said Lee Kovarsky, Wilson’s attorney and a law professor at the University of Maryland.

Wilson was convicted in 1994 in the shooting death of Jerry Williams, 21, who had identified him to police as a drug dealer. His accomplice in the crime, Terry Lewis, was given life in prison with the possibility of parole, after Lewis’s wife testified that Wilson confessed to pulling the trigger. No forensic evidence or eyewitness testimony established the identity of the shooter.

Wilson maintained that he did not commit the murder, but his defense ultimately hinged on convincing state or federal courts that his diminished mental capacity should exempt him from execution.

School records showed Wilson fared poorly in school, earning Ds and Fs in special education classes, and failing 7th grade. Family members testified that Wilson was called “dummy” and “retard” by other children when he was a boy, and struggled with basic tasks that include tying his shoes, counting money and mowing the lawn.

Texas and federal courts, however, rejected Wilson’s claim that he was mentally retarded, siding with prosecutors who argued that his actions showed him to be a street-savvy criminal. Prosecutors also declared that other intelligence tests showed Wilson’s IQ was in the low- to mid-70s.

“Wilson created schemes using a decoy to screen his thefts, hustled for jobs in the community, and orchestrated the execution of the snitch, demonstrating inventiveness, drive and leadership,” Edward Marshall, a Texas assistant attorney general, said in a statement.

In 2002, the Supreme Court prohibited the execution of the mentally retarded, declaring it cruel and unusual punishment forbidden under the Constitution’s 8th Amendment. Those with diminished mental capacity, the court ruled, are less culpable for their crimes than those with normal intellects. The reasoning was nearly identical to the legal argument the court embraced in forbidding the execution of juvenile offenders.

The court left it up to the states to determine who qualified as mentally retarded. In response, the Texas Court for Criminal Appeals, the top state court, cited in a ruling the child-like character “Lennie,” from John Steinbeck’s classic novel “Of Mice and Men,” as its standard of what type of offender should be exempt from execution.

“Most Texas citizens would agree that Steinbeck’s Lennie should, by virtue of his lack of reasoning ability and adaptive skills, be exempt from execution,” the court found.

Those with more advanced intellects should face execution, regardless of psychological tests indicating mental deficits, the ruling said. The Texas standard has been used repeatedly to justify the execution of those who by clinical benchmarks would typically be judged to suffer from mild mental retardation.

Those standards applied to Wilson, who exhibited serious mental deficits beginning in childhood, family members said.

According to his sister, Wilson sucked his thumb into his 20s. His cousin, Beverly Walters, said Wilson was constantly teased about his intelligence as a boy.

“The other kids in school would always call Marvin dummy,” Walters said in 2003.

On Tuesday, the use of Steinbeck’s character to support the execution of those with less profound mental deficits was criticized harshly by the author’s son.

“Prior to reading about Mr. Wilson’s case, I had no idea that the great state of Texas would use a fictional character that my father created to make a point about human loyalty and dedication …. as a benchmark to identify whether defendants with intellectual disability should live or die,” Thomas Steinbeck said in a statement.

“I am certain that if my father, John Steinbeck, were here, he would be deeply angry and ashamed to see his work used in this way,” Steinbeck said.

Wilson is the seventh person put to death in 2012 by Texas, which has nine more inmates scheduled to die by lethal injection before the end of the year.

Reprint: Marvin Wilson’s Execution: Texas Ignores Supreme Court & Puts Man with 61 IQ to Death -By John Rudolf | HuffPost

 

Anaheim Police Brutality Sparks Outrage After 2 Latinos Shot Dead and Demonstrators Attacked | Democracy Now!

Police in the California city of Anaheim are facing allegations of murder and brutality after fatally shooting two Latino men over the weekend and firing rubber bullets at crowds of protestors. On 21 July 2012, Anaheim police shot and killed 24-year-old Manuel Diaz after he reportedly ran away from a group of officers who confronted him in the street. Diaz was unarmed. Hours after his death, a chaotic scene broke out when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at a crowd of local residents protesting the shooting.

Another Latino resident, Joel Acevedo, was shot dead by police the following day. Police say Acevedo was suspected in a car robbery, but the circumstances around his death remain unconfirmed. We discuss the situation in Anaheim with Gustavo Arellano, editor of the alternative newspaper, OC Weekly; and Teresa Smith, who has worked with families to call for police accountability in Anaheim since 2009, when officers shot and killed her son Cesar Cruz, a 35-year-old father of five. “Given the fact that this is the eighth officer-involved shooting within one year in the city of Anaheim … the community’s going to be very upset,” Arellano says. “There’s a lot of angry residents, and rightfully so.”

 

The Sentencing Project: 5.85 Million Americans Disenfranchised by Felon Voting Laws -By Michael McLaughlin| HuffPost

A record number of Americans with criminal records cannot vote in what is expected to be a tight presidential election, a new study says.

More than 5.85 million adults who’ve been convicted of a felony aren’t welcome at polling places, according to data through 2010 compiled by The Sentencing Project. That’s 600,000 more than in 2004, the last time the nonprofit group crunched the numbers.

The vast majority of these disenfranchised adults have been released from prison. Sentencing Project researchers found more than 4 million Americans who cannot cast a ballot because they’re on probation or parole, or live in a state that withholds the right to vote from all ex-felons.

“This is a fundamental question of democracy,” said the Sentencing Project’s executive director Marc Mauer. “These policies go back to the founding of this country. [The U.S.] was founded as a great experiment in democracy, but was very limited. Wealthy, white male landowners granted themselves the right to vote, but women, poor people, African Americans and people with felony convictions could not vote.

“This is the last fundamental group that’s still excluded from democratic participation.”

A majority of felons and ex-cons blocked from voting reside in a core of six Southern states — Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee and Virginia — where more than 3 million people are banned from the rolls.

Punishing people with felony records hits African Americans harder than other races: 7 percent of blacks are disenfranchised compared to 1.8 percent of the rest of the country, the study found. The numbers are more drastic in Florida and Virginia, political battlegrounds considered crucial in deciding the outcome of November’s election. In Virginia, 20 percent of blacks can’t vote. In Florida, that number is 23 percent. President Obama carried both states in 2008. (Kentucky, which is safely in Republican hands, is the only other state where 1 in 5 African Americans can’t vote.)

Reliable information for Latinos wasn’t available, according to Christopher Uggen, the lead author of the report. Uggen said that Hispanics are disenfranchised at a rate higher than whites, but lower than blacks.

“There’s no question this has a basis in race discrimination,” ACLU Voting Rights Program director Laughlin McDonald told The Huffington Post. “It’s part of the history of the racial minorities in the South. The Southern states adopted a whole variety of measures to take away the right to vote after Reconstruction.”

Excluding criminals from voting goes back even further, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In ancient Greek and Roman societies criminals experienced “civil death,” a punishment that could entail loss of property and the right to sign contracts, as well as vote.

Current rules about who can vote vary greatly from one end of the country to the other. Maine and Vermont are the only states permitting felons to vote from behind bars. Eleven states take away the franchise for life, although some allow ex-felons to appeal for the right to be restored. Between the extremes are states with different rules for parolees and people on probation.

The general nationwide trend over time has been to loosen voting restrictions on current and former felons, although the number of disenfranchised voters continues to rise because more and more people are under some form of supervision by the criminal justice system.

Virginia, a state that disenfranchises felons for life unless they apply to get the vote back, instituted a program in 2010 that guarantees a quicker decision on restoration requests. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) also shortened the period that a non-violent ex-felon must wait to apply from three to two years.

“Restoration of rights to citizens who have committed a crime, served their time, and returned to society is a top priority of this administration,” said Jeff Caldwell, a spokesman for McDonnell, in a statement sent to The Huffington Post. “It is a goal of this administration to restore as many rights as possible to those who have paid their debt to society and returned to be productive citizens.”

Moving in the opposite direction are Florida and Iowa, where incumbent governors reversed polices that granted more voting rights to people emerging from correctional supervision. Upon taking office last year, Republican Gov. Terry Branstad undid an executive order by his predecessor that permitted all former convicts to vote. Now, they must apply and prove they’ve repaid all court fees and restitution to victims. Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) instituted a five-year waiting period before people who’ve served their sentences can apply to get the vote

“We believe that the victims need to be taken into account,” said Branstad’s spokesman Tim Albrecht. “The governor does not believe that felons should have a blanket restoration of their voting rights.”

The number of Americans denied voting rights continues to grow despite the general easing of barriers to voting for people with criminal records. In 1976, there were fewer than 1.2 million disenfranchised Americans. The researchers link the unrelenting growth in disenfranchised voters to the expanding number of people incarcerated or under some form of supervised release.

Of course, not every eligible voter actually participates on Election Day. In the last presidential election, 64 percent of voting-age people turned out at the polls, according to a Census Bureau report. It’s difficult to estimate how many people with felony records would vote if they could. But it’s probably far below average, because they tend to come from a lower-income, lower-education demographic that votes less, experts said.

‘When people first come out, they have a lot of central survival concerns and voting is probably not high on their list,” said Ann Jacobs, director of the Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College. “But as you get your life more stable, self-expression through voting becomes a higher priority.”

Still, the number of excluded voters could be decisive for a candidate.

“The numbers are quite substantial,” the Sentencing Project’s Mauer said. “In a close contest, whether for city council or the U.S. Senate, [it] could affect an election.”

 

This graphic is courtesy of Colorlines. Note that at the time the graphic was created in 2010, more than 5.3 million Americans had lost their voting rights as a result of felony convictions. According to the Sentencing Project that number has increased to 5.85 million Americans.

Reprint:  Felon Voting Laws Disenfranchise 5.85 Million American with Criminal Records: The Sentencing Project -By Michael McLaughlin| HuffPost

Related: Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections| David Earnhardt (Full Length Documentary)

 

Granito: How to Nail a Dictator| POV Documentary

In a stunning milestone for justice in Central America, a Guatemalan court recently charged former dictator Efraín Rios Montt with genocide for his brutal war against the country’s Mayan people in the 1980s — and Pamela Yates’ 1983 documentary, When the Mountains Tremble, provided key evidence for bringing the indictment. Granito: How to Nail a Dictator tells the extraordinary story of how a film, aiding a new generation of human rights activists, became a granito — a tiny grain of sand — that helped tip the scales of justice. An Official Selection of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. A co-production of ITVS with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. A co-presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting.

Granito: How to Nail a Dictator| POV Documentary airs on PBS June 28, 2012

 

Louisiana’s Angola 3 = 100+ Years of Solitary Confinement

April 17, 2001 marked 40 years to the day — since April 17, 1972, or 14,600 days ago — that Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox have been held in solitary confinement in Louisiana. The state says they were guilty of murdering a guard at Angola Prison, but Wallace, Woodfox and their network of supporters say they were framed for their political activism as members of the Black Panthers. Woodfox and Wallace founded the Angola chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1971. A third prisoner, Robert King joined them a year later. The three campaigned for better working conditions and racial solidarity between inmates, as well as an end to rape and sexual slavery. Today, to mark the 40-year anniversary of their placement in solitary confinement, Amnesty International says it will deliver a petition to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal that bears the signatures of tens of thousands of people from 125 countries. In the videos above, Robert King who was released in 2001 when his conviction was overturned and he pleaded guilty to a lesser offense, speaks out about this ongoing injustice.

Related: Angola 3: 36 Years of Solitude | Mother Jones (Special Reports)

• Louisiana’s Angola 3: 100 Years of Solitude -By Wende Gozan Brown | Amnesty Intl
  100 Years in Solitary: The Angola 3 and Their Fight for Justice | Amnesty Intl (Report)
• End 40 Years of Solitary Confinement in Louisiana (Download Petition)
• Angola 3 (Website)

JUSTICE FOR THE ANGOLA 3 – SIGN PETITION