Report says FBI's flawed forensics put over 60 inmates on death row

In the US, an FBI report has uncovered that some flawed forensic work were used in the convictions of some 60 death-row inmates 17 years ago.

At least three of the inmates have since been executed. The problems were spotted by the FBI's inspector general's office, which in a 1997 report, found serious irregularities in the work of 13 examiners. Still, the US Justice Department failed to notify justice officials that suspect testimony and flawed evidence were used to secure some capital convictions. 

The report said the management failures allowed the rogue examiners to practice for years. The review also showed that the time lag to resolve the problem caused irreversible harm for some inmates.

Black Father Wrongfully Held By Cops At Gunpoint With 11-Year- Old Son For “Stealing” His Own Car Sues NYPD

This man AND his 11-year-old son were held at gunpoint while riding in their own car. Racial profiling doesn’t get much worse than this…

A black father from Brooklyn is taking on the NYPD after he and his 11-year-old son were held at gunpoint by police officers who wrongfully accused him of stealing his own car.

via AOL News

The Brooklyn native and MTA conductor was driving to his home in Queens when suddenly, at the intersection of Linden Boulevard and the Van Wyck service road in Queens, Pittman was stopped by undercover officers from Nassau County and uniformed cops from the NYPD.

In the last two weeks, Pittman filed a nine-page federal complaint against the city recalling the frightening events from that night.

On Monday afternoon, the 37-year-old spoke about the incident for the first time in a PIX 11 News exclusive.

“I look to my left, there is a gun pointed right at my face by another officer,” he said. “I glance to my right, there is a officer at the passenger side of the car with a gun pointed at my son.”

Unsure as to why he and his then 11-year-old son had guns pointed at them by police, Pittman had no time to ask questions because he was “forcibly pulled out of the car,” as he described. Then he was placed, “across the hood of the car.”

Several minutes went by, according to Pittman, before “one of the officers asked me, with his gun still pointed at me, ‘What are you doing? Whose car is this?’”  Pittman said it was his.

The NYPD’s response: “Well, why is this car on our stolen car list if you’re telling me the truth?”

Pittman then said, “Well you tell me, and I actually asked the officer, would you like to see my license and registration? Because at no point up to now have I been asked for any form identification or for any proof of ownership for the car.”

Pittman is now suing the NYPD for negligence because they failed to take his car off the list of stolen vehicles after he picked it up from them three months earlier.

- See more at: http://bossip.com/999016/fawk-you-pay-me-black-man-wrongfully-arrested-at-gunpoint-for-stealing-his-own-car-sues-nypd/#sthash.UCUELAVT.dpuf

A new study shows Black men haven’t progressed much in almost half a century…

Study Shows Black Men Haven’t Made A Lot Of Progress

In recent years, the U.S. has celebrated the 50th anniversaries of the March on Washington, the Civil Rights Act and a number of other landmark accomplishments considered pivotal in making the U.S. a better place for African Americans.

Via TIME Magazine reports:

But despite a deep reverence for those accomplishments, a new study suggests that African-American men today face such high levels of unemployment and incarceration that they are in little better position when compared with white men than a half-century ago.

The working paper, by University of Chicago researchers Derek Neal and Armin Rick, is based on preliminary findings and has not yet been peer-reviewed.

The growth of incarceration rates among black men in recent decades combined with the sharp drop in black employment rates during the Great Recession have left most black men in a position relative to white men that is really no better than the position they occupied only a few years after the Civil Rights Act,” the study reads.

The study uses census data to show that more than 10% of black men in their 30s will be incarcerated at some point during a calendar year. This number was around 2% for white males of the same age group.

The study attributes the corrosive impact of incarceration on the African-American community, at least in part, to the institution of more punitive criminal-justice policies.

African-American men also appear to face a more difficult employment situation. More than a third of African-American men between the ages of 25 and 49 lacked employment in 2010.

“The Great Recession period of 2008–2010 was quite bleak for black men,” the study reads. “Recent levels of labor market inequality between black and white prime-age men are likely not materially different than those observed in 1970.”

Why are Black men struggling? Discuss…

- See more at: http://bossip.com/998937/race-matters-new-study-shows-black-men-are-just-as-uneducated-unemployed-and-incarcerated-as-they-were-in-1970/#sthash.4QdfLMG0.dpuf