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Criminal justice reform advocate accused of murder

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 09 Mar 2024 00:17:47 +0000

Ex-con and criminal justice reform advocate Sheldon Johnson Jr., inset and background photo, who recently appeared on the “Joe Rogan Experience,” is accused of killing Colin Small. (Screenshots from WNYC/YouTube; inset screenshot from Joe Rogan Experience)

A criminal justice reform advocate and ex-con recently on Joe Rogan’s podcast was arrested after cops found the dismembered body of a 44-year-old man — with the bullet-wounded head and limbs in the freezer of the victim’s New York apartment.

Sheldon Johnson Jr., 48, was arrested on Thursday, shouting out to assembled reporters, “I’m innocent! I’m innocent!” after New York police made the grim discovery of the remains of Colin Small. The murder was uncovered when police responded to Small’s apartment on Summit Avenue in Highbridge on Tuesday at 8:25 p.m. on a wellness check when police said they found a torso in the apartment.

Citing police sources, The New York Post reported a foot was found in a blue bin and a head, arms, legs, and a second foot were discovered in the freezer. Police also encountered Johnson there, the paper reported.

Building superintendent Orlando Medina told New York ABC affiliate WABC that a tenant called him about the violence in apartment 6G.

“She said she heard two gunshots,” Medina said, the station reported. “Someone said, ‘Please don’t kill me. I got family,’ something like that and two more gunshots pretty quickly.”

He said surveillance video showed the suspect entering and leaving Small’s apartment in various disguises, including one in which he’s wearing a blond wig and carrying bags.

His father, Sheldon Johnson Sr., 73, thought his son, who had served 25 years in the Sing Sing Correctional Facility for a robbery conviction in 1997 and worked as a client advocate for Queens Defenders after his release, had turned his life around.

“I’m surprised and shocked,” said his father, who is deaf, through an interpreter, the New York Daily News reported. “I thought he did well in prison. He studied. I was happy he got out of jail. I thought he was reformed.”

“I can’t see my son giving up this good job and doing something like this.”

The Daily News reported a possible drug motive, but details were not disclosed on Friday.

Johnson Jr. spoke about his life on “The Joe Rogan Experience” last month. He spoke about being in a gang dealing drugs and doing time in prison and about his father and grandfather, who were incarcerated.

He told Rogan that he had an epiphany at one point in prison.

“I have to change my life,” he said. “I just can’t do this. I had a wife, I had family still. My son was growing up. He was hearing stories about my so-called notoriety. I just didn’t want to be that dad.”

He faces charges of murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon.

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Longtime civil rights advocate Emmet Bondurant will receive this year’s ABA Medal

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 11:25:53 +0000

Bar Associations

Longtime civil rights advocate Emmet Bondurant will receive this year’s ABA Medal

By Amanda Robert

February 27, 2024, 10:11 am CST

Longtime civil rights advocate Emmet Bondurant “has pursued justice with unwavering integrity” throughout his career, according to the ABA, which on Monday announced that he would receive this year’s ABA Medal. Photo courtesy of the ABA.

“The ABA Medal is the highest honor bestowed by the American Bar Association, and we are proud to honor Emmett Bondurant for his five decades of commitment to democratic values, equal protection, voting rights and indigent defense,” said ABA President Mary Smith in a news release.

Bondurant, founder of the Atlanta-based litigation boutique law firm Bondurant, Mixson and Elmore, successfully argued Wesberry v. Sanders when he was only 26 years old. In the 1964 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held for the first time that congressional districts must contain equal populations. This became known as the “one person, one vote” rule.

Among other significant voting rights cases, he urged the Supreme Court in Rucho v. Common Cause in 2019 to end the practice in which state legislatures deliberately draw voting districts to disadvantage residents based on their political views.

The ABA also commended Bondurant for his commitment to fairness and racial justice in the criminal justice system in Georgia.

In 2003, he helped pass the Georgia Indigent Defense Act and was the first chairman of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council from 2003 to 2007. He is now on the advisory board of Gideon’s Promise, which is working toward effective representation and equal justice for marginalized communities.

In 1989, Bondurant prevailed before the Georgia Supreme Court in Fleming v. Zant. This case established the rule in Georgia that executing defendants who are mentally impaired constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court reached the same conclusion in Atkins v. Virginia 13 years later.

Bondurant also represented attorney Elizabeth Hishon in Hishon v. King & Spalding, a groundbreaking gender equality case. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in 1984 that firms are subject to Title VII and prohibited from discriminating against women when selecting partners.

“I was surprised and humbled to have been selected to receive the ABA Medal,” said Bondurant, who has been an ABA member for 57 years.

The ABA Medal “recognizes exceptionally distinguished service by a lawyer or lawyers to the cause of American jurisprudence.” Bondurant will accept the award at the ABA Annual Meeting, which convenes in Chicago from July 31 through Aug. 6.

Past recipients include Supreme Court Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Felix Frankfurter, Thurgood Marshall, William J. Brennan Jr., Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer; civil rights leader Fred Gray; ethics leader Lawrence Fox; World Justice Project founder and former ABA President William Neukom; social justice activist Bryan Stevenson; Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski; and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

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Victim advocate fired after copying district attorney’s office on ‘panties’ email

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 08:38:01 +0000

Careers

Victim advocate fired after copying district attorney’s office on ‘panties’ email

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 30, 2024, 9:50 am CST

A victim advocate in the San Francisco district attorney’s office was fired Friday for sending an email copied to the entire office that read, “What color panties you have on.” (Image from Shutterstock)

A victim advocate in the San Francisco district attorney’s office was fired Friday for sending an email copied to the entire office that read, “What color panties you have on.”

The email sent by Jovan Thomas was addressed to District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, who is his boss, report the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Standard and SFist.

It appeared to be a response to an invitation to an event memorializing the 1998 murder of gay college student Matthew Shepard.

Thomas sent a second email that apologized and said the prior email was a joke that he intended to send to a fraternity brother.

A spokesperson for Jenkins said Thomas had been fired.

“To be clear, there is no relationship between the district attorney and the individual who sent this email,” the statement said. “This misogynistic behavior violates the office’s code of conduct, and this individual has been terminated. The district attorney’s office is committed to maintaining a professional office environment where all staff members are treated with dignity and respect and not subject to harassment or a hostile work environment.”

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