Late last week, Gov. Roy Cooper announced he would commute the sentences of April Barber, Joshua McKay, and Anthony Willis — three individuals who were sentenced to long terms in prison for crimes they committed when they were teenagers.
This … Continue Reading →
By Ben Finholt and Jamie Lau
On April 8, 2021, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper signed Executive Order 208, establishing the Juvenile Sentence Review Board. This board is a new mechanism for executive clemency, which has been described as “provid[ing] … Continue Reading →
By Travis Thorpe Jr.
Our Gov. Roy Cooper founded the Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice (TREC) with Executive Order 145 in June 2020. The mission of this task force is to promote equity in the criminal legal … Continue Reading →
Duke Law Professors James E. Coleman Jr. and Jamie T. Lau brought much-needed attention in an op-ed published Monday to the fact that even after serving 25 years in prison, North Carolina can get away with compensating the wrongfully convicted … Continue Reading →
By Ruthie Kesri
Gov. Roy Cooper recently announced the creation of a four-person advisory board to review the prison sentences of juveniles.
“Developments in science continue to show fundamental differences between juvenile and adult minds,” Cooper said in a press … Continue Reading →
By Annie Han
In December, North Carolina’s Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice (TREC) released 125 recommendations that encompass all aspects of the criminal justice system, starting with police contact, then the courts, and sentencing.
“North Carolina can … Continue Reading →
Fourteen North Carolina lawmakers from across the state are urging Gov. Roy Cooper to commute Ronnie Long’s sentence – he is represented by Jamie Lau at Duke Law School’s Wrongful Convictions Clinic.
Long, a Black man who is now 64, … Continue Reading →
Ninety-eight people who are incarcerated in a federal prison in this country have died from COVID-19 in the past four months, and North Carolina is bearing the brunt of those losses with 25 deaths out of the Butner Federal Correctional … Continue Reading →
Roy Cooper may become the first North Carolina governor in more than 40 years to complete a term without granting clemency to a single person, which includes sentence commutations and pardons of forgiveness or innocence.
Three faculty at the Duke … Continue Reading →
Gov. Roy Cooper has officially appointed the full 25-person Racial Equity in Criminal Justice Task Force, and the group will meet for the first time at 10 a.m. today. The Task Force will develop and help implement policy solutions to … Continue Reading →