Blog
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...
Emancipate NC Stands In Solidarity with the Family and Community of Daniel Turcios
Image courtesy of WUNC and Jason DeBruyn. It depicts Kerwin Pittman addressing reporters, as Dawn Blagrove and Ivan Almonte comfort Rosa Jerez, the wife of Daniel Turcios. Last week, the Raleigh Police Department needleessly murdered another civilian–this time, a...
Calling Incarcerated Artists!
Image depicts artwork by Emancipate NC client, Ashlee Inscoe. Calling all incarcerated artists! Inspired by the creativity and resilience of our siblings in jail and prison, Emancipate NC will launch a site to showcase the talent of incarcerated artists....
Emancipate NC Prepares Petition to Release DPD Body Cam
Image depicts Dawn Blagrove with William and Kim Smith at the Durham Police Department awaiting release of body camera footage. Emancipate NC has prepared a petition to publicly release body camera footage from an aggressive police action by the Durham...
Emancipate NC Raises a Billboard in Elizabeth City
Image depicts Kerwin Pittman underneath a new billboard in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, dedicated to the life and memory of Andrew Brown, Jr. Emancipate NC has raised a billboard in Elizabeth City, North Carolina to honor the life and memory of Andrew...
Dawn Blagrove Argues at NC Supreme Court
As previously reported, Executive Director Dawn Blagrove was invited to give oral argument in a Juvenile Life-without-Parole case at the North Carolina Supreme Court last month, after Emancipate NC submitted an amicus brief on behalf...
Emancipate NC & Team File Suit For Prison Censorship
In recent years, North Carolina prison officials have systematically violated the First Amendment by censoring publications mailed to incarcerated people, including the popular magazine, Prison Legal News. Thousands of incarcerated people across the country rely...