Happy last class of the semester! Wrapped the term with a parole hearing for our client who has served half a century in prison - and before that, two tours in Vietnam. Special appearance by a UVa law student @kirkwolff.bsky.social who testified as an expert in veterans [email protected]

New Orleans in 2025 has had the 2nd fewest murders since 1970. fewest shootings in decades, fewest carjackings & car thefts since 2013, and fewest vehicle burglaries since before 2011. Relative to 2022/2023 peak: Shootings -60% Murders -57% Carjackings -78% Vehicle burglaries -68% Car thefts -67%

A New Orleans man who spent three decades in prison before his murder conviction was vacated won election to serve as the city’s chief criminal court record keeper, despite the state challenging his past. https://cnn.it/48iwvTi

Hell yea, Calvin! Or should I say, Mr. Clerk of Court.

Correction. Our costume was: "ALLEGED assault with a deli weapon, AN ALLEGATION ULTIMATELY REJECTED BY A JURY OF HIS PEERS AFTER CAREFUL DELIBERATION."

For the record: @tframpton.bsky.social and I would never had made light of this terrifying situation if we had bothered to take the time to hear from the victim. That being said, we are available for in court reenactments.

Our couple’s costume this year is: “Assault with a deli weapon.” Happy Halloween to everyone except ICE, the National Guard, and other federal law enforcement occupying our city. #FreeDC

Parole board hrgs are tough. Esp in Virginia where your client isn’t present, & instead meets separately, w/o you. I wish all my clients had the beautiful network loving and wise women that showed up for our client today. Once again, very grateful for my @gwlaw.bsky.social student’s persistence.

Recap of the last 2 weeks: 6 visits to clients in federal prisons in 3 states, with 8 students, while 6ish months pregnant… with 3 court appearances mixed in….grateful to still have the energy for this, for @gwlaw.bsky.social for supporting the work, and for my student’s dedication and compassion.

A great day in court! So thrilled for our client who will get home just in time for his first Thanksgiving with his family in 16 years. And I am so proud of the 9 law students (7 at @uvalaw.bsky.social & 2 at @gwlaw.bsky.social) who worked so diligently for 2+ years to secure a sentence reduction.

So proud of the 8 law students (6 at @uvalaw.bsky.social and 2 at @gwlaw.bsky.social) who put 2+ years pursuing a sentence reduction for a client under D.C.’s Second Look Law. GW Law 3Ls Zoe Jacobs and Nick Teachenor’s professionalism and preparation during today’s 3 hour hearing was extraordinary.

Invite me to your health related emergencies.

I was back at 26 Federal Plaza today, where an ICE agent violently threw this bereft woman to the ground in front of her kids. She had not touched him. She did not pose any threat. She had to be taken to the hospital. (🎥: Elias Eliahu)

I wasn’t here looking for it (though I love it when I see it), but for people keeping track of DC federal grand jury ‘no true bills,’ I think there was just another one. I’m sitting in magistrate court on another case, no press or observers, and the AUSA just reported no true bill in U.S. vs. K.B.

Thank you, D.C. Grand Jurors.

Thousands take to the street (in D.C. heat) to protest the federal takeover. #FreeDC

DC residents and allies across the country will rise up on Saturday to demand an end to DC's occupation. BE THERE! Get your friends, neighbors, congregation, and community to join the national event this Saturday at 11 AM in Malcolm X Park. Sign up at bit.ly/we-are-all-dc

Your crim law professor and your other crim law professor are having a baby . . . ✨❤️ @tframpton.bsky.social

We strongly object to the proposed ban on camping on public property in the city. This inhumane policy was condoned by the current right wing Supreme Court in the Grant’s Pass decision, which Chief Kochis sites in his justification for the policy. Homelessness is solved by housing, not policing.

From a student: “federal prosecutors can indict a ham sandwich, but not the man who threw it.” (Kirk Wolff, UVa Law).

Good morning to everyone except the ATF and MPD officers who just kidnapped someone around the corner. Terrorizing everyone as little kids walked to the elementary school around the corner.

The Parole Board (which took the time to directly address those viewing on YouTube to explain "medical furlough") just granted relief to Kentrell Parker. You can read about his extraordinary story here: lailluminator.com/2024/03/30/l...

"It's up to us, that the buck stops with us, that we can't just trust the system to right itself, that the Constitution doesn't enforce itself . . . I know I sound like I'm flag waving. It's the Fourth of July, but this is absolutely, 100%, what I believe." - Meg Garvey, 20 year public defender.

For no particular reason, here's a chart of Louisiana's congressional delegation, by race, for every Congress since the Civil War. Top red line = end of Reconstruction; bottom red line = Voting Rights Act of 1965.

I stand by this.

“When you confront the fact that you’re complicit in the torture of a child, what do you do? . . . You do not walk away. You stay. And then you figure out how to destroy the injustice that has made the society so grotesque and indefensible.”

Today is the 16th anniversary of the $7.25/hr federal minimum wage. If it were a person, it would be able to drive a car. Yeah, it’s been too damn long. Raise the wage.

Heck yea, Mike Pruitt!

I signed the pleadings but I can’t take credit for this win - that goes to our client who entered BOP at 17 and against all odds survived & thrived; and @uvalaw.bsky.social students Sam Armstrong, Sarah Gebrengus, and Sam Meyer who spent 2 years investigating and pleading the heck out of his case.

“By succumbing to demands from the U.S. Department of Justice to fire the university president — as part of a discrimination investigation it did not contest — the board effectively surrendered the university’s autonomy to the federal government.” - James Mingle, former General Counsel to UVA.

The most accurate and up to date information about the crisis at UVA (which is just the latest university to come under attack by the federal government bent on advancing the cause of “white civil rights”) is coming from independent journalists and student journalists. TYFYS. 🧡💙

Personal news: Kelly and I will be visiting profs at @gwlaw.bsky.social for 2025-26. Students: I’ll be teaching Section 1983 and Criminal Adjudication in the fall—and Kelly will be directing the Prisoner & Reentry Clinic—so sign up! (And random other folks, say hi if/when you come through DC.)

“By no means should board members support this interference or, even worse, execute the politically motivated orders of federal bureaucrats." — Tim Gibson, president of the Virginia Conference of the American Association of University Professors

1/ Over the past several days, my better half and I have been talking about what a new UVA could mean for Charlottesville, the city that raised us and that we know so well.

andrew cuomo won't see your insults but corrupt, serial sexual harassers who are trying to run cities they don't actually live in will

What is common knowledge in your field that shocks outsiders? Washington D.C. does not have a prison so you are shipped to any federal prison in the country where you’re deprioritized for rehabilitative programming because you aren’t doing federal time.

What is common knowledge in your field that shocks outsiders? In Louisiana you’re released from prison with $20 on a JPay issued debit card (that costs $12.95 to activate), and if you can’t arrange a ride you get a bus ticket.

What is common knowledge in your field that shocks outsiders? In Virginia you have to pay $96 - $103 and wait 6 months - a year to remove arrests that did not result in conviction from your record - and the burden is on you to prove it’s necessary.

very fun to read frederick douglass accurately describe the problem with the pardon power in 1867

So it looks like Charlottesville's most prominent Jewish social media presence (who has sort of been stalking me and my wife for the last few months) is actually a Nazi-adjacent Christian activist. And former City Councilman. Fun! drive.google.com/file/d/1Y3k_...

Rohit led one of the few established nonprofits in Atlanta that spoke out against the patently undemocratic and repressive approach that the Dickens Administration took against the Stop Cop City organizing, especially the effort to put a referendum on the ballot.

A whole mess of UVA students, colleagues, and community members did something unfathomably kind for me and @yoyokellyo.bsky.social. I’m sorry for being weird and vague, but I don’t know what the rules are. If you see this and you were part of it, we’re beyond grateful and touched. 😭😭😭

NEW: A coalition of students from more than 15 law schools across the country have signed a pledge not to work for any firm that “gives in to Trump administration demands…” Signatories include students from Harvard, Georgetown, University of Chicago, UT-Austin… docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

So deeply grateful for the nine @uvalaw.bsky.social students who worked on this case over three years. And for @tframpton.bsky.social for being there to capture the moment.

Every evening, without fail, Pope Francis speaks with priests and parishioners at the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City. He tells them that they are not forgotten and that, as long as he has a voice to cry out for an end to the Israeli assault on Gaza, there is hope for peace and justice.

Good stuff from my colleague @kevinlcope.bsky.social and Rachel Cohen: slate.com/news-and-pol...

Very proud of my @uvalaw.bsky.social students who (just two weeks before finals) are hard at work on a Sunday evening prepping for an IRAA hearing in D.C. tomorrow . . .