Student Discourse

Two women. Two guns. Two very different encounters with the American legal system. In 2010, Marissa Alexander, a 31-year-old Black mother in Jacksonville, Florida, fired a single warning shot into the wall of her own home to stop her estranged husband Rico Gray from attacking her again. Gray had a documented history of domestic violence against her. The shot hit no one. Nobody w...

If true fairness existed in deciding freedom prior to trial, financial resources wouldn't determine who is released and who remains locked up. This ideology framed New York's bail reform initiative upon its implementation in 2020. The legislation sought to eliminate cash bail for the majority of misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies so individuals wouldn't be incarcerated simply ...