After Katrina, New Orleans police officers circulated orders authorizing them to shoot looters and "take back the city," but it remains unclear who issued them. More...

A former New Orleans resident has been charged with federal hate crimes in a racially motivated shooting of three black men in the days after Hurricane Katrina. More...

At a press conference announcing the indictments, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said New Orleans' troubled police force "is a priority for this Department of Justice." More...

An African-American man in Mississippi makes history by being tried six times for the same crime. The first five ended in hung juries or mistrials, and this week's trial has already full of courtroom drama. More...

After two decades of putting record numbers behind bars, cash-strapped states switched gears and looked to less costly alternatives -- resulting in the first decline in state prison populations in 38 years. But not all states are laying down the prison keys. More...

A groundbreaking state process created to investigate prisoners' claims of innocence has ruled that Gregory Taylor did not commit the murder for which he was convicted, joining a growing list of people nationally freed after wrongful convictions. More...

Convicted of murder in a deeply flawed trial, Herman Wallace has spent nearly 37 years in solitary confinement in the Louisiana prison system. Will new evidence finally lead to his release? More...

As the Supreme Court considers two Florida cases where juveniles got no-parole life sentences, New America Media commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson argues that teenage offenders should be helped with treatment and rehabilitation rather than condemned to life in a prison cell. More...

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is introducing legislation to remove the disparity between crack and powdered cocaine possession, a drug policy that had a large impact on the South over the past two decades. But the bill does not make the sentencing change retroactive, writes Earl Ofari Hutchinson. More...

Two weeks ago, a federal judge partially granted class certification in a lawsuit seeking to hold the Gretna Police Department and the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office accountable for their actions in the aftermath of Katrina. More...

The Louisiana State Supreme Court Friday denied an appeal from Herman Wallace, who has been held in solitary confinement at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola for more than 37 years. More...

Four years on, the federal investigation into the actions of New Orleans police officers in the days following Hurricane Katrina seem to finally be under way. More...

Texas Governor Rick Perry is being accused of trying to cover up a possible wrongful execution. If an unbiased review of the case of Cameron Todd Willingham occurs, it could result in the unprecedented recognition by lawmakers that an innocent person was executed in the United States. More...

Forsyth County District Attorney Tom Keith actually said blacks were statistically more prone to violence than whites -- but some community leaders are still unhappy with his corrected statement. More...

Enacted into law in Texas today, the Tim Cole Act will increase and expand compensation for people who have been wrongfully convicted in Texas. The act also helps to shine a light on Texas' notorious title as the state that leads the nation in prisoners who have been exonerated through DNA tests. More...

In a major breakthrough Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a new hearing for Georgia death-row inmate Troy Davis. Davis' case has become one of most high-profile death penalty cases in the United States, and has helped to spur a growing movement against the death penalty in the South. More...

THURS 8/6 | In what social justice advocates are calling a milestone victory for the South, North Carolina lawmakers approved a bill allowing people facing the death penalty to challenge prosecutions on the grounds of racial bias. More...

William Jefferson, the former Louisiana Congressman who represented parts of New Orleans, was convicted Wednesday of 11 of 16 counts of corruption. More...

Civil rights and voting rights groups are praising the Democracy Restoration Act of 2009, a bill recently introduced in Congress that would allow people released from prison to vote in federal elections. More...

A new report by the Sentencing Project finds that an unprecedented number of prisoners are serving life sentences. More...