Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

Tremane’s supporters celebrating outside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary after receiving the news

November 13, 2025 at 4:36 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

Part of Tremane's clemency presentation included quotes from the victim's mother, Barbara Wipf, to me, stating her opposition to the execution

November 5, 2025 at 9:31 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

Black was also intellectually disabled, meaning he should not have been eligible for execution

August 5, 2025 at 6:52 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

utterly barbaric — Byron Black's lawyers unsuccessfully fought in court for his defibrillator to be disabled before his execution, arguing it could cause painful shocks as he died. Witnesses to the execution say he groaned in pain and said, "It's hurting so bad." www.tennessean.com/story/news/c...

August 5, 2025 at 6:50 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

At the end of a very intense interview, we asked Jerce if there was anything else he wanted our readers to know. He smiled and said, "Just that even with everything I’ve gone through, I’ll always be a fan of Real Madrid.”

August 2, 2025 at 4:15 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

Jerce was accused of being a gang member based on a Real Madrid-inspired tattoo and a "rock-and-roll" hand gesture he made on social media years ago.

For this, he was disappeared from the US and sent to one of the most infamous prisons in the world, where he endured "countless" beatings

August 2, 2025 at 4:12 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

unfathomable www.huffpost.com/entry/gaza-s...

July 28, 2025 at 6:57 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

July 25, 2025 at 5:42 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

the moment Ysqueibel Yonaiquer Peñaloza Chirinos reunited with his family after 125 days in CECOT, shared with me and
@mattshuham.bsky.social by his mom, Ydalys Chirinos-Polanco

July 19, 2025 at 4:19 AM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

accounts from some of the kids who are being forcibly separated from their loved ones:

May 29, 2025 at 7:29 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

another LAPD officer, that works with Protector, Royce Burroughs, is a named defendant in an ongoing lawsuit brought by a woman who claims Burroughs was part of a SWAT team that blew up her apartment wall/door and pointed guns at her while responding to a hostage situation in the building

Another LAPD officer who works with Protector, Royce Burroughs, is currently a named defendant in a civil suit brought by a woman who alleges that he was part of a team of LAPD officers who, while responding to a hostage situation, blew up a door and wall of her apartment while she was inside, stormed through the hole in her wall, and pointed guns at her while she frantically tried to keep her kittens from running away. The woman went on to suffer from symptoms of traumatic brain injury, as well as anxiety, depression, back pain and a sensitivity to loud noises, she said in the complaint.

March 22, 2025 at 4:22 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

James Zourek, an LAPD veteran hired by Protector and featured prominently in their promotional materials, scoffed at the idea that chokeholds could be considered a lethal use of force

Zourek, who is prominently featured in Protectors’ promotional materials, has been with LAPD since 1997. A self-described “knuckle dragger,” Zourek has also worked as a Marine Corps Scout Sniper in Iraq, a federal prison guard and a firearms instructor. In December 2023, while head of LAPD’s union, Zourek gave an hour-long interview on a podcast called “The IA Guy” about his treatment by the police department’s internal affairs division, which investigates allegations of misconduct.

“One hundred percent of the job” of an internal affairs investigator should be protecting cops, Zourek said, stating that it’s a “detriment” to the police department for an officer to “feel like you’ve been run through the ringer.”

Early on in his career, Zourek was given a 22-day suspension “for unnecessarily extending a lawful detention,” he said on the podcast. One of the lessons he learned from that incident was the importance of being honest during the internal investigation — up to a point. “Look, if you got a body buried in the backyard, roll the dice, don’t tell them about it,” he said.

In 2004, Zourek put an unarmed man suspected of removing property from a stolen vehicle in a carotid restraint, or a chokehold, causing the suspect to lose consciousness, court records show.

“The LAPD ridiculously, they consider a carotid restraint, or a chokehold, they consider it a lethal use of force,” Zourek said on the podcast, relaying the incident. “If that’s true, then every night in jiu jitsu, I’m committing attempted homicide.”

LAPD suspended the use of carotid restraints in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. California lawmakers banned the practice later that year.

Zourek took the case to LAPD’s disciplinary appeal board, which found him guilty and recommended a five-day suspension. Zourek filed a writ of mandate in Los Angeles County Superior Court, arguing that his conduct was reasonable based on the information he had at the time, and that his punishment was inconsistent with LAPD’s past practice. In 2007, a judge granted Zourek’s petition and directed LAPD to rescind the suspension and reimburse Zourek for lost wages, with interest.

Zourek has “zero lessons learned” from that incident, he said on the podcast. “I will do it every day, all day, I don’t care about the five-day suspension,” he said of the chokehold. “I’ll do it tonight if I go out there. Because I’m 100% in the right.”

March 22, 2025 at 4:18 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

The state's case against Wood relied heavily on testimony from two jailhouse informants who claimed Wood confessed to them. A man named George Hall who was in jail with Wood and the informants at the time, recently came forward and said the informants' testimony was fabricated

March 11, 2025 at 11:30 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

PREA requires prison officials to conduct individualized housing assessments for trans people, factoring in their own beliefs about their safety. As of last week, BOP's website linked to a 2022 policy echoing that language web.archive.org/web/20250122...
This is what the BOP website says now

January 31, 2025 at 11:26 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

the federal Bureau of Prisons no longer lists how many transgender men and women are in its custody. As of Jan. 25, it was less than 1% web.archive.org/web/20250127...
www.bop.gov/about/statis...

January 31, 2025 at 10:56 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

In a separate lawsuit filed today in DC, three trans women sued to block BOP from transferring them to men's facilities. "This could mean life of death and she has not received a death penalty as her sentence," one of the plaintiff's mom/sister wrote. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Sara Doe’s mother and sister emailed on January 25, 2025, to
request that they reconsider the decision to transfer Sara to a men’s prison. They wrote:
“Sending her to an all-male prison will be the end of her. No one deserves this. There needs to be
another way, we beg for your sympathy. She will get sexually assaulted and even possibly killed
for being who she is. She is a citizen designated as a female and deserves protection like any
other human. . . . This could mean life or death and she has not received a death penalty as her
sentence.”

January 31, 2025 at 1:43 AM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

Today Rev. Risher urged Biden to "finish the job" and commute the remaining three men on federal death row + those on military death row. "Politics has gotten in the way of mercy."

"I am happy for all those whose sentences have been commuted, and grateful to President Biden for this unprecedented act of mercy, but this is so unfair. I need the President to understand that when you put a killer on death row, you also put their victim's families in limbo with the false promise that we must wait until there is an execution before we can begin to heal. Every time this case comes up, I am brought back to the day my mother and cousins were murdered, and I need that to stop. Politics has gotten in the way of mercy. You can't rank victims, Mr. President. I am begging you to finish the job, not only with the three men left on federal death row, but also with those on the military death row. There's still time. Finish the job."

December 23, 2024 at 6:35 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

Rev. Sharon Risher, whose mother and two cousins were killed in the Mother Emanuel AME Church shooting, has been one of the most outspoken advocates for commuting all of federal death row — here's how she explained her thinking to me a few weeks ago www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-...

December 23, 2024 at 6:32 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

Amber, who spent 17 days on hunger strike and has opted to live in solitary confinement rather than general population in the men's prison, described how WA's Dept of Corrections is forcing her to choose between treating her gender dysphoria and protecting herself from physical/sexual violence

“If I am eventually placed in men’s general population, I will live in constant fear. I am afraid of physical assault, sexual assault, and the constant harassment,” Kim wrote in a declaration. “I will face the ultimate paradox: my continued physical transition helps address my debilitating gender dysphoria, but the more female-presenting I become in appearance, the more unwanted, nonconsensual attention I will receive from the men in prison.”

December 17, 2024 at 10:53 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

love to see my tax dollars at work

October 31, 2024 at 5:48 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

Jake was represented by three experienced capital public defenders. Tremane was represented by a private appointed attorney who struggled with drug/alcohol addiction, had his law license suspended and admitted to doing a bad job on Tremane's case

October 13, 2024 at 4:20 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

Oklahoma recently passed a law mandating reduced sentences for survivors of domestic violence who prove their crimes were related to the abuse — the Tulsa County DA's office drafted a form that would require people to waive those rights to get a plea deal www.huffpost.com/entry/tulsa-...

September 18, 2024 at 9:06 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

former Supreme Court Judge Michael Wolff, one of the judges who upheld Dorsey's death sentence on appeal, says they got it wrong and is asking Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) to grant clemency

March 19, 2024 at 11:29 PM

Jessica Schulberg

@jessicaschulberg.bsky.social

Ahead of trial, one of Dorsey's lawyers asked another lawyer what she thought of pleading guilty without a deal from prosecutors to take death off the table. She said it was "a really bad idea" that always had "abominable" results