Blog
The Launch of Unlock Our Vote
By Kerwin Pittman Effective on July 27th, 2022, North Carolina citizens (Over 56,000 People) on state or federal probation, parole, or post-release supervision for felony convictions can IMMEDIATELY begin to REGISTER and VOTE in NC elections, making this the largest...
Emancipate Goes to the NC Court of Appeals
Last week, Strategic Director Elizabeth Simpson argued in the North Carolina Court of Appeals in an appeal of a termination of parental rights case arising in Durham County. Emancipate NC is informed by the Office of the Parent Defender that this was the third oral...
Free James Richardson!
By Dedan Waciuri Last month, Emancipate NC joined with family and community to call upon Pitt County District Attorney Faris Dixon to release James Richardson, a Black man wrongfully convicted of murder in 2011. Mr. Richardson was a promising international basketball...
Emancipate NC Supports Gaston Community in Struggle & Grief
Last month, law enforcement in Gaston County took the life of beloved community member Jason Lipscomb, only days before his birthday. Our Justice League Fellow, Shaun Bates, is a member of the Gaston County community. Kerwin Pittman and Dedan Waciuri traveled to...
Report from Poetic Justice 2022
Emancipate NC joined with Eno Friends Meeting, Alamance-Orange Prison Ministry, Human Kindness Foundation, and Our Children’s Place of Coastal Horizons on July 30 for an evening of art, music, and poetry. Emancipate NC undergraduate intern Bella Lane organized...
Raleigh Police Must Adopt A Guardian Mentality
Art by Dawn Blagrove Emancipate NC reported last month that as a result of consistent pressure from the community about its repeat incidents of excessive force, the Raleigh Police Department has resolved to adopt its first de-escalation policy. Emancipate NC Legal...
Progress in Wilson County
For the past three years, Emancipate NC has partnered with the Vera Institute of Justice, the NAACP of Wilson County, and CAPE, to transform Wilson County by reducing jail populations. Our lens is child welfare, and the way in which pretrial detention of a parent...
The Story of Tiffany Marion: Part I
By Kyla Holton Racial discrimination and implicit bias in the plea bargaining process plagues our criminal justice system. Plea bargains are legal deals in which a defendant waives their right to trial and pleads guilty. As part of a bargain, some charges may be...
What’s next?
By Elizabeth Simpson On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the decision protecting the right to abortion, effectively canceling the right to bodily autonomy for women and pregnant people. We know this decision will impact poor women of color most of all,...
Poetic Justice Evolves
Please save the date for an event on July 30, 2022, from 4:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. at Margaret Lane Art Gallery in Hillsborough, NC. Emancipate NC will join with various groups, including Eno Friends Meeting, Alamance-Orange Prison Ministry, Human Kindness Foundation, and...
The End of De Facto Life For Juveniles
Legal Analysis by Maren Hurley Important takeaways: North Carolina’s constitution is more expansive than the federal constitution; juvenile offenders may not serve more than 40 years before parole eligibility; juvenile offenders sentenced to two or more...
Emancipate NC Celebrates Juneteenth in Tyrrell County
On June 18, Senior Counsel Ian Mance supported the Concerned Citizens of Tyrrell County in a Juneteenth event calling for the removal of the offensive Confederate Monument in Columbia, NC. NPR reported: "Having this monument in front of our courthouse is hurtful to...
The Cost of Mass Incarceration
Commentary By Jeffrey B. Cobb Jeffrey B. Cobb is married to Emancipate NC’s Cierra Cobb. Together, they founded the Care Bear Foundation. Jeffrey is currently incarcerated at Caswell Correctional Institution in Blanch, NC. It seems like the 1950s started this...
Freedom on Father’s Day
On June 19, Director of Policy and Programming Kerwin Pittman celebrated Juneteenth by bailing out two fathers at the Wake County Jail, in collaboration with Emancipate NC’s Freedom Fighter Bond Fund and Recidivism Reduction Educational Program Services, Inc. (RREPS)....
Policing the Raleigh Police
It has been two years since the racial justice protests that roiled our state capital in Summer 2020, following the police murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. Since then, Emancipate NC has strived to convert that energy into transformation of our dominant...