evidence

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

Study Finds Evidence Of Sex Trafficking In Trade Schools

Researchers identified at least 18 schools across five states that state certification boards suspected of forcing their students into the sex industry. Mariel Padilla Originally published by The 19th Researchers identified at least 18 state-authorized schools across five states suspected of engaging in sex trafficking operations, according to a report published on Wednesday by the Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation (SHSF). And now a congressional committee is demanding that something be done. The report’s authors, Ellie Bruecker and Abigail Seldin, wrote that state certification boards suspected these vocational schools of facilitating environments that could be too easily used by traffickers to train their victims for more lucrative work — but Bruecker estimated that the problem is much...

How Video Evidence Can Be Differently Interpreted In Courts – From Rodney King To George Floyd

10May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL JUSTICE

How Video Evidence Can Be Differently Interpreted In Courts – From Rodney King To George Floyd

News media coverage of Derek Chauvin’s trial for the murder of George Floyd highlighted the role of video as a “star witness.” Jurors in this trial saw footage from cellphones, police body cameras, dashboard cameras and surveillance cameras. In his closing arguments, prosecuting attorney Steve Schleicher even told the jurors, “Believe your eyes. What you saw, you saw.” For the past eight years I have been studying the use of video as evidence both in international human rights courts and tribunals and in state and federal courts in the U.S. As a media scholar, I pay close attention to how people interpret video as evidence. One of the things I have found is that the argument “seeing is believing” is not as intuitive as it sounds. ‘Who do you believe?’ On March 3, 1991, a Los Angeles resid...

Evidence Is Still Slim That The Cannabis Derivative CBD Makes A Difference For Anxiety Or Pain, But Sales Are Soaring

18Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

Evidence Is Still Slim That The Cannabis Derivative CBD Makes A Difference For Anxiety Or Pain, But Sales Are Soaring

Many people have turned to cannabis and its derivatives as they search for pandemic relief, and one of the most widely available ones is CBD. It is also legal. You can buy oils, tinctures, capsules, gummies, cosmetics and even toilet paper said to contain the molecule. Martha Stewart has a line of CBD products, and some companies are marketing CBD products for holiday gifts. And, you can even buy CBD products for your pet. An investment bank has estimated that this market will be worth US$16 billion by 2025, even though many of the products that allegedly contain CBD may not contain any CBD all. And, if they do, the amount often is far less than the amount stated on the product bottle or box. The CBD craze started in 2018, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Epidiolex, t...

Prosecutors are increasingly – and misleadingly – using rap lyrics as evidence in court

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS, Journalism

Prosecutors are increasingly – and misleadingly – using rap lyrics as evidence in court

Rapper Darrell Caldwell, better known to fans as Drakeo the Ruler, was on his way to stardom. Hailed as one of the most original rappers to emerge from Los Angeles in a generation, he had garnered hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram, tens of millions of views on YouTube and the attention of media outlets like SPIN, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times. Now he’s on trial for his life, and prosecutors are planning to do what they’ve done to hundreds of other accused hip-hop artists: Use his own lyrics as evidence against him. Because my research centers on African American literary and musical traditions – with a particular emphasis on hip-hop culture – I was asked by the defense to testify as an expert witness in Drakeo’s first trial. This is work I’m called to do qu...