Equal Justice Initiative

Today in Kansas City, Missouri, the NAACP awarded EJI Director Bryan Stevenson the William Robert Ming Award for Advocacy at the opening plenary session of its 101st National Convention. The award is one of the NAACP’s highest honors for professionals in the legal field and was presented to Mr. Stevenson for the work of the Equal Justice Initiative, which this year has issued a major report documenting illegal racial discrimination in jury selection, led a successful effort in the United States Supreme Court to abolish life imprisonment without parole sentences imposed on juveniles, provided critical legal assistance to condemned prisoners on death row and prisoners wrongly convicted or illegally sentenced, and aided many others facing unfair and unjust treatment in the criminal justice system.

Marsha Colby, pictured with two of her six children in 1997, prior to being falsely accused of killing her seventh child at birth.

Capital murder charges filed against Marsha Colby in the death of her infant son have been dismissed and the case resolved on reduced charges in light of new forensic evidence.

EJI urges our supporters to contact our sister organization Partners in Health (PIH) which is coordinating emergency services for the victims of the hugely destructive earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010. PIH is on the ground in Haiti and is one of the most effective health care providers in impoverished settings in the world. PIH is already in Haiti leveraging the skills of more than 120 doctors and nearly 500 nurses and nursing assistants who work at its health clinic sites in Haiti. To help PIH respond to the crisis in Haiti, click here.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held on January 5, 2010, that Washington State's felon disenfranchisement law violates the Voting Rights Act because it results in minorities being denied access to the polls on account of their race.

Nearly half of all children in the United States and 90% of African American children will rely on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the recession could push those numbers higher.

On September 4, 2009, the Alabama Supreme Court reversed the conviction and sentence imposed on Marsha Colby, who was convicted of capital murder after giving birth to what doctors believe was a stillborn baby.

On July 24, 2009, a deaf man in a Mobile store bathroom was attacked by police with a Taser gun and pepper spray after he failed to respond to police knocking on the door. Officers forcibly removed 37-year-old Antonio Love from the Dollar General store and attempted to book him on charges of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and failure to obey a police officer, even after they learned that Mr. Love could not hear them knocking on the door.

More people are being arrested for living on the streets as homelessness rises, says the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) in its latest report, Homes Not Handcuffs. The report details how police in 273 cities nationwide are targeting people who have lost their homes and are forced to seek shelter in public places.