New Bills Root Out Racial Discrepancies In The Criminal Justice System Why is it that 73 percent of Connecticut's prison beds are currently occupied by people of color? Lawmakers hope to answer that question this session with a series of proposals aimed not just at understanding why racial disparities in Connecticut's prisons are among the highest in the nation, but at reducing those numbers. The first proposals examine why people of color may be arrested in the first place. Two proposals currently under consideration, one authored by Sen. Alvin Penn (D-Bridgeport) and another from the House Judiciary Committee, would make racial profiling by police in Connecticut illegal. [continues 891 words]
On the shakiest of evidence, Daryl Valentine -- and lots of others -- are doomed to languish in jail. It doesn't matter how many times attorney Thomas Ullmann tells his former client, Daryl Valentine, that things could be worse. The fact that Valentine could be on death row rather than sitting in the open visiting room at MacDougall Correctional Institution is cold comfort to a 31-year-old facing 100 years behind bars. Valentine is bitter. And if what he says is true, he has reason to be. He has been found guilty, twice, of a shooting that left two people dead and one wounded in New Haven. Yet, Valentine claims, and his attorney firmly believes, he is innocent. [continues 3438 words]
At the first trial, two women were holding out for a not-guilty verdict. After a week of the jurors eating together, the two hold-outs on the jury found themselves at a table, alone. By the end of the week, the rest of the jury wasn't even speaking to them. The pressure proved to be too much. Although they were crying when individually polled by the judge -- at Ullmann's request -- both women returned guilty verdicts. One of the women later called Ullmann and apologized, but that didn't help Valentine. [continues 1285 words]
