Civil rights attorney Ben Crump tweeted about the new change for the state and thanked Minnesota legislators for "taking action to bring our queens home or to bring justice to their families."

The advocate released a memoir earlier this year titled, 'I Cried to Dream Again: Trafficking, Murder and Deliverance.'

Rarely are there any thoughts given to the possibility that these reports of police misconduct and abuse could reflect a larger pattern being played out on the national level.

(NY Post) — The Department of Justice’s civil-rights division will investigate a white Oakland police officer who killed an unarmed black man on a crowded train platform, a case reminiscent of the racially charged 1992 police beating of Rodney King. The feds will step in after Officer Johannes Mehserle, 28, was convicted Thursday of a […]

(The Root) — Five New Orleans police officers have been indicted on 11 counts of misconduct and wrongdoing in the shooting and subsequent cover-up of the murder of Henry Glover on the Danziger Bridge following Hurricane Katrina. Read More…

(NPR) — Jury selection resumes in the upcoming federal trial of Jon Burge, Chicago’s former Police Commander. Burge stands accused of lying about his involvement in getting scores of confessions to crimes through the use of torture. Guest host Tony Cox talks with reporter Kathy Chaney, of The Chicago Defender newspaper, about the upcoming trial […]

(Atlanta Journal Constitution) — Justice is not just blind in Atlanta.  It is also infirm.  That was the case representatives from Atlanta’s Municipal Court, Public Defender’s Office and Solicitor’s Office made Tuesday as they asked the City Council’s Finance/Executive Committee to increase their budgets. Read More…

(AP) — Georgia’s judicial branch has long fought to preserve its independence amid concerns that their counterparts in the Legislature or governor’s mansion are overstepping their bounds. Georgia’s top judges even threatened to go to court last year to block deep cuts to the judiciary ordered by Gov. Sonny Perdue. But the latest threat to […]

(AP) — A federal judge in Wisconsin ruled the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional Thursday, saying the day amounts to a call for religious action. U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb wrote that the government can no more enact laws supporting a day of prayer than it can encourage citizens to fast during Ramadan, attend a synagogue […]