FEDS REFUSE TO RELEASE INNOCENT BLACK MEN FROM JAIL
How does this mess happen? The Justice Department refuses to release
several North Carolina inmates that it acknowledges are innocent!
A USA Today investigation identified more than 60 men who essentially
became innocent overnight last year, when an appeals court ruled that
the Justice Department had been incorrectly applying its law preventing
felons from possessing guns in North Carolina, locking up people whose
criminal records weren’t serious enough to make possession illegal.
But the DOJ hasn’t notified inmates of their newfound innocence, and when challenged has fought their release in court. In one April filing, it argued that an inmate “at most has become legally innocent,” but wasn’t entitled to release. “We can’t be outcome driven,” one Charlotte U.S. attorney says.
One example is Terrell Mccullum, seen below, He’s still being held at the Piedmont Regional Jail in Farmville, Va.
“We’ve got to make sure we follow the law.” Public defenders are
frustrated. “I have trouble figuring out how you rationalize this,” one
says. “These people are innocent. That has to matter at some point.”
But the DOJ hasn’t notified inmates of their newfound innocence, and when challenged has fought their release in court. In one April filing, it argued that an inmate “at most has become legally innocent,” but wasn’t entitled to release. “We can’t be outcome driven,” one Charlotte U.S. attorney says.
One example is Terrell Mccullum, seen below, He’s still being held at the Piedmont Regional Jail in Farmville, Va.
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