You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Louisiana Supreme Court Upholds Life Sentence for Black Man Who Stole Hedge Clippers

HeadlineAug 10, 2020

Louisiana’s Supreme Court has upheld a life sentence for an African American man who was convicted of attempting to steal hedge clippers from a home nearly a quarter-century ago. Fair Wayne Bryant’s life sentence for the 1997 burglary followed his fourth felony conviction, which carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 20 years under Louisiana law.

In other news from Louisiana, an African American Gulf War veteran, Derek Harris, will be released from prison, after the Louisiana Supreme Court overturned his life sentence for selling less than $30 of marijuana to an undercover police officer.

In Kentucky, authorities are cracking down on protests demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, a Black Louisville resident who was shot inside her own home in March by police. Louisville’s Metro Police Department said Sunday that protesters may no longer march in the street and that car caravan protests could face citation or arrest if they disobey traffic laws.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top