Blog
Daniel Turcios Was Not Intoxicated; Law Enforcement Lied
You’ve followed coverage here of the Raleigh police murder of Daniel Turcios in January 2022. Initial media reports described an “intoxicated” man “wielding a knife” and “threatening people” – all part of the police-generated narrative to justify taking this man’s...
The Harms of Text Behind
by Phillip Vance Smith, II Correctional facilities in North Carolina began using Text Behind, a third-party mail service provider in 2021. Instead of sending personal mail directly to a prison, senders must either create an online account for electronic mail or send...
Emancipate NC Helps Grieving Mom View Body Camera Footage
Valarie Smith Ragland just wants to see the footage of her son dying. Makari J Smith, of Oxford, NC, was fatally shot on February 9, 2022, at the age of 23, by the Granville County Sheriff's Office while in the midst of a probable psychotic episode. ...
Welcome to the 2022 Justice League
Emancipate NC is thrilled to introduce the 2022 Justice League! This group hails from twelve North Carolina counties. Eight are current students at North Carolina A&T University. The group will work together this year to build relationships, learn...
Emancipate NC Sues Raleigh Police
Last month, Emancipate NC attorneys Ian Mance and Elizabeth Simpson, joined with co-counsel Emily Gladden and Abe Rubert-Schewel from the law firm of Tin Fulton Walker & Owen and Michael Littlejohn from Littlejohn Law, to sue the Raleigh Police Department on...
Emancipate NC Featured in the Nash News
Phillip Smith, a friend of Emancipate NC, is the Editor of Nash News, a publication created and produced entirely by Nash Correctional Residents at the Correction Enterprises Print Plant. The last issue featured a story about Emancipate NC, including profiles of...
Emancipate NC Shifts The Narrative
One of Emancipate NC’s three primary strategies is our work to shift the public narrative on mass incarceration. Our mission statement reads: “Through community education, narrative shift, and litigation, Emancipate NC supports North Carolina’s people as they free...
Emancipate NC Joins Immigrant Rights Groups For Rally
On February 10, Emancipate NC joined with El Pueblo, Respuesta Rapida de Durham, and NC SPAN to host a peaceful march in memory of Daniel Turcios, and to hold police accountable for his murder. The Indy Week covered...
Law Review Article Considers Race Discrimination & Juries
Emancipate NC attorney Ian Mance published a piece in the Campbell Law Review about North Carolina prosecutors’ use of peremptory challenges to secure an all-white jury in a capital trial involving a Black defendant. Prosecutors used a “cheat...
Letter to Raleigh City Council on Body Camera Transparency
In light of Wake County Superior Court Judge Collins' puzzling decision to publicly release body camera footage from Daniel Turcios' police killing, while shielding the footage from an illegal Raleigh police No Knock home raid on innocent civilians, Emancipate NC has...
Emancipate NC Lawsuit Featured on CNN Documentary
Emancipate NC attorney Ian Mance and Emancipate NC client Stephanie Bottom are featured in a new CNN documentary: “CNN Special Report- Traffic Stop: Dangerous Encounters” In a one-hour special, CNN national correspondent Sara Sidner explores traffic stops and the...
Lawyers Must Challenge Racist Symbols in Our Courthouses
Emancipate NC attorney Ian Mance, along with Elizabeth Hambourger, an attorney from the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, published an article in Trial Briefs about attorneys’ duty to challenge the racist symbols, including Confederate monuments, in our counties’...
Emancipate NC files amicus brief about over-policing of Black communities
Yesterday, associate director Elizabeth Simpson filed an amicus brief in the North Carolina Supreme Court in State v. Johnson, a case about how criminal defendants can prove racial profiling and selective enforcement of the law. Using new data analysis from public...
Emancipate NC Fights For Body Camera Transparency & An End to No-Knock Warrants
Yolanda Irving and Kenya Walton are two Black mothers in Raleigh, whose homes were wrongfully raided by a Raleigh Police SWAT Team in 2020. The raid was based on a bad address on a warrant, stemming from a corrupt cop and a corrupt informant. The mothers’...
Justice League Fellow On NFL Social Media For Activism
Jatoia Potts is a 2022 Emancipate NC Justice League Fellow. Jatoia first met the Emancipate NC team in December 2019, after she was released from pretrial detention in the Durham County jail, where she spent over nine months locked up on a $250,000 bond. The...