Flozelle Woodmore wins a Soros fellowship

 This is an impressive honor for a formerly incarcerated survivor of domestic violence.

Flozelle Woodmore served 20 years of a life sentence for killing her abusive partner. In August 2007, after 10 parole hearings (and being found suitable six times) and a large, sustained campaign Woodmore was finally released from prison. She is among the few to have gained freedom after being sentenced to life in prison in California.

Senate should pass program to reduce women prisoners

Oklahoma, for years, has led the nation in the number of women

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/05/18/18648282.php

A brief look at various issues of the defense and the prosecution in the trial of Oscar Grant's killer:

Peerless, Oaklandish, and Uptown Body
& Fender Among Indie Award Winners | 92510 | East Bay Express

By Charles Piller
First of two parts

Jason Brannigan's eyes widened as he relived the day he says prison guards pepper-sprayed his face at point-blank range, then pulled him
through the cellblock naked, his hands and feet shackled.

"I
can't breathe! I can't breathe!" Brannigan recalled gasping in pain and humiliation
during the March 2007 incident.

BANGOR, Maine — Five female students, including one who'd recently
completed a self-defense class, jumped to the aid of a fellow student,
grabbing her knife-wielding attacker and holding him until police
officers arrived at Husson University, officials said Wednesday.

Ohio man tasted freedom for the first time in nearly 30 years on
Wednesday after a judge vacated his conviction because DNA evidence
showed he did not rape an 11-year-old girl.

"It finally happened,
I've been waiting," Raymond Towler, 52, said as he hugged sobbing
family members in the courtroom.

He walked from the
courthouse, arms around his family members, amid the smell of freshly
cut grass, blooming trees and a brisk wind off Lake Erie. He was headed
to an "everything on it" pizza party.

Oakland residents were shocked to see a deer
frolicking in the flatlands of East Oakland, but were even more
disturbed when an Oakland Police officer murdered the deer on Saturday.

Officials address concerns that the three-drug procedure may have constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Challenges may block executions for months or years.

By Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times

April 30, 2010

California moved a step closer to resuming executions Thursday when corrections officials announced new lethal injection procedures, beating a May 1 deadline by one day.