1. Muscatine, Iowa – Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said that more states should let people with felony records vote while they’re in prison in an article in the Des Moines Register. “I think that is absolutely the direction we should go,” Sanders said in response to a question regarding voting from prison.
2. Nevada – An estimated 90,000 Nevadans were un- able to vote in the 2016 election because of prior convictions, or about 4% of the voting age population, reports The Nevada Independent. A new bill would remove any waiting requirement and automatically apply voting rights to any per- son regardless of the severity of their crime, or if they are on parole or probation.
3. Washington – (Reuters) On a 5-4 vote with the court’s conservatives in the majority, the US Supreme court reversed two lower court decisions that delayed the execution of Alabama inmate Christopher Price, 46, for 60 days. Price has requested execution by lethal gas instead of lethal injection.
4. Sacramento – The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has awarded $4 million in grants to volunteer and community-based organizations in its continued effort to enhance rehabilitative programs and activities in California state prisons. The grants were awarded for a period of three years, for a total of $12 million in fund- ing. CDCR will use the Innovative Programming Grants to help balance offerings and provide opportunities at prisons that historically may not have a large number of volunteer-led programs.
5. Pennsylvania – Brandon Flood, 46, has a new job as secretary of the five-member Board of Pardons, a panel that give felons a chance for clemency or wipe their slate clean by pardoning past convictions, The Inquirer reports. What makes the appointment remarkable is that Flood’s past includes boot camp for juvenile offenders, felony convictions for deal- ing crack cocaine and carrying an unlicensed gun.
6. Pennsylvania – State law- makers approved a dozen victim-centered bills that include restrictions on cross- examinations of rape vic- tims, eliminating the statute of limitations for child sexu- al abuse, making it easier for people with intellectual dis- abilities to testify in court, as well as a formal bill of rights for crime victims known as Marcy’s Law.
7. Simi Valley – Craig Coley was released from prison in 2017 after then Gov. Jerry Brown who said that DNA evidence and reinvestigation proved his innocence pardoned him. Coley has since reached a $21 million settlement with the city of Simi Valley for being wrongly imprisoned for nearly 40 years.
8. USA – There were 101 exonerations for violent felonies in the US, including 68 homicides, 7 child sex abuse convictions, 10 sexual assaults on adults. Two of the homicide exonerees had been sentenced to death. Thirty- three were of drug crimes; Twenty-three were based on whole or part DNA evidence; Seventy were of convictions in which no crime was actually committed; 107 included misconduct by government officials; forty-nine were based on guilty pleas; thirty-one involved mistaken eyewitness identifications; nineteen involved false confessions; 111 included perjury or a false accusation; and ninety-nine were the result of work by prosecutorial conviction integrity units or innocence organizations.
9. Minnesota – Ex-offenders on parole or supervised release can use medical marijuana under a new policy, the Star Tribune reports.
10. New Hampshire – Last April state lawmakers passed a veto proof measure to end the death penalty, the Los Angeles Times report.
