USA Radical Black

7-year-old girl killed in Detroit police raid

By the CNN Wire Staff, re-posted by Admin-USA Radical Black
May 16, 2010 3:53 p.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Aiyana Jones, 7, was shot and killed by police executing a search warrant
* Police believed the suspect in a Friday shooting death of 17-year-old was hiding at the home
* Police official: “All we can do is pledge an open and full investigation and to support Aiyana’s family”

(CNN) — Police in Detroit, Michigan, on Sunday expressed “profound sorrow” at the fatal shooting of a 7-year-old girl in a police raid. Read More »

Tags: 7-year-old girl killed, Aiyana Jones, Detroit police raid

Ugly Truth: Most U.S. Kids Sentenced to Die In Prison Are Black

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Originally Posted November 11, 2009.

The U.S. stands alone in the world in condemning thousands of juveniles to life without parole. And race is a huge factor. Will the Supreme Court even consider it?

This is the second in a two-part series on juvenile life without parole. Read Part One here.

On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court heard two cases that could have major implications for the way juvenile offenders are treated in our criminal justice system. Sullivan v. Florida and Graham v. Florida both involve men who are serving life without the possibility of parole for crimes they were convicted of as teenagers — crimes in which no one was killed.

Joe Sullivan was only 13 years old when he was accused of sexually assaulting a 72-year-old woman in her Pensacola, Fla., home, hours after he and a group of older teenagers robbed her house. Sullivan, who reportedly suffers from mental disabilities, insisted that, while he participated in the robbery, he did not commit the rape. But his co-defendants, 15-year-old Michael Gulley and 17-year-old Nathan McCants, 17 pinned the crime on him. Both were tried as juveniles; Sullivan was tried as an adult. Read More »

Tags: African American, AlterNet, Children, Justice System, Prison