African-American presence in Arizona politics

Low population, high unemployment, low median income and a lack of representation in government has left many African-Americans in Arizona out without a voice. “There are a lot of industries and areas that do not have a lot of people that look like us,” said Natalynn Masters, the second African-American to become University of Arizona…

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Blacks, Latinos face heftier prison time

Nationwide, for every one white person imprisoned, roughly five black people are, according to the Sentencing Project. In Arizona, those ratios are similar for African Americans, with Hispanics being imprisoned roughly twice as much as whites. Yet, the U.S. Census Bureau’s data show that black people only take up about 5 percent of the total…

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DNA sheds light on past mistakes

As the science around DNA testing advances and becomes more commonplace in courts it reveals weaknesses in other forms of forensic evidence and expert testimony that impact convictions in Arizona and around the nation. According to the Innocence Project, there have been 330 post-conviction exonerations related to DNA evidence in the United States since 1989…

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