Piper French

In January 2024 I got a one-line email from a woman I didn't know: "Jimmie Duncan an innocent man on death row is looking to get into contact with you." I've been working on the story ever since. Here it is, finally - a @motherjones.com / @bolts.bsky.social feature: boltsmag.org/the-human-co...

NEW: Do you remember Chris Duncan? He spent 30+ years on death row in Louisiana, convicted with junk science from doctors later revealed to have created a bite mark on victim. He was found innocent by a judge last year. Now the judge is running to take over the DA office that prosecuted Duncan.

NEW: Chicago-area cops took part in an undercover probe by ICE agents into Minneapolis mutual aid networks last spring, records obtained by WIRED show, including unspecified electronic surveillance, audio recordings, ALPR data by @awinston.bsky.social

I spoke to @psfrench.bsky.social for this great piece, flagging the tension inherent in the City Attorney’s charge to defend the City when it harms people while also seeking justice for residents. At the end of the day, you have to pick a side: LA deserves someone who will stand with its people.

Thousands of detained immigrants with “Final Orders of Removal” have had their records hidden or deleted from ICE’s tracking system, leaving families and lawyers unable to locate them.

Lost at Sea depicts the anchor-outs as the inheritors of an old tradition: the pilgrimage to the far edge of the country in pursuit of riches, a break with the past, or simply the unknown.” —@psfrench.bsky.social

For years, Alaska officials prosecuted (& persecuted) a community of American Samoans in the city of Whittier, threatening them with years in prison for the crime of voting. You may have read about this when we covered it in Bolts earlier this year. HUGE NEWS: Alaska just dropped all charges.

“Against the politics of disappearance, [Joe Kloc] is writing to create a record. Though the anchor-outs may be gone, something of their strange community abides.” —@psfrench.bsky.social

Our 9/24 issue is now online, with @jacobweisberg.bsky.social on craven Dartmouth, Miranda Seymour on Gwendoline Riley, Jed Rakoff on the courts and the climate, @psfrench.bsky.social on houseboat living, @omerbartov.bsky.social on antisemitism and anti-Zionism, and much more.

Last yr, Newsom vetoed an initial bill forcing data centers to disclose water usage amid pressure from big tech, saying he was “reluctant to impose rigid reporting requirements … without understanding the full impact on businesses & the consumers of their technology.” calmatters.org/environment/...

This new piece by @psfrench.bsky.social is a landmark article, many months in the making – the most comprehensive account to date of NYC-DSA’s ascension and the difficult strategic questions that its electoral success has posed www.thedriftmag.com/socialists-i...

Seriously, please support this platform.

www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

In our newsletter today, @tarpley.bsky.social revisits @psfrench.bsky.social’s Drift essay on RICO in light of the Trump administration’s intensifying criminalization of protest. newsletter.thedriftmag.com/p/more-atom-...

After years of hunger strikes and litigation, survivors of solitary in California passed the Mandela Act to restrict isolation. But the governor vetoed it and told prison officials to make their own reforms. @psfrench.bsky.social reports how they’re now backtracking on even those minor reforms:

"The reversals have validated advocates’ earlier fears about Newsom’s decision to let the prison system handle its own reforms, rather than imposing legislative guardrails. They come at a time of reduced judicial oversight, too." Via @psfrench.bsky.social @boltsmag.org: boltsmag.org/california-d...

To this day, one of the most unbelievable facts we’ve ever published in @boltsmag.org: Over a 40-year period, *80* percent of death row convictions in Louisiana have ended up getting reversed.

My colleague @psfrench.bsky.social spent a while reporting on this case before it was vacated, while Duncan was on death row. Read her incredible reporting. boltsmag.org/the-human-co...

❗SCOTUS ruled today a defendant can't just waive away their rights to an appeal if that'd be a miscarriage of justice. Gorsuch wrote a concurrence saying: If we don't limit this, prosecutors will keep pushing their luck. And he cited Bolts' article on waivers in Virginia to show how far they go:

whoa apnews.com/article/deat...

The size of the reelection victory of Kenneth Mejia (LA's left-wing city auditor) is very striking. He leads his challenger (who was endorsed by many prominent Dem officials) by more than 20%. revisit @psfrench.bsky.social's great profile of him from years ago: boltsmag.org/los-angeles-...

As war criminals like Bezalel Smotrich parade in NYC alongside US public officials, the Gaza flotilla's participants are recovering from the extreme violence inflicted on them at sea. I wrote about the history of the flotilla movement's efforts to break the blockade: www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...

Oliver Darcy got the audio of the heated 60 Minutes meeting where Scott Pelley dressed Nick Bilton down! "You know what was rude? Black Thursday. That was the absolute definition of rudeness. Telling Tanya Simon she had to be out of here at five o'clock." www.status.news/p/scott-pell...

NEW: Civilian oversight of the NYPD in New York City has been continually overturned and weakened. And so far this year, there've been new setbacks. Can that possibly change? It'd take going after a history of police union running roughshod over civilian leaders, @psfrench.bsky.social writes:

New York's legislature has passed a bill banning 287(g) agreements with ICE, @nysfocus.com reports: nysfocus.com/2026/05/22/h... If the bill is adopted, New York would be the 11th state with a 287(g) ban, and the 5th (NJ, MD, NM, ME) to enact a ban this year alone. @boltsmag.org map for reference:

NEW: A California DA was prosecuting Stanford students for felonies over pro-Palestine protests. Bolts reported back in February that he was fundraising off these cases. Learning this, defense attorneys dug more, & filed a motion to force Rosen off the case for bias. A judge just removed him:

NEW: A former Phoenix PD officer whose company trained an ICE paramilitary unit was involved in six shootings while on duty, four of which resulted in death. @awinston.bsky.social has the scoop: www.wired.com/story/an-ice...

see also Piper's own reporting on this: boltsmag.org/chris-duncan...

I tend to agree w people who say innocence cases are the low-hanging fruit of carceral reform, but it's remarkable - & deeply symptomatic - how far Louisiana officials will go to deny that these clear miscarriages of justice occur & even retaliate against their victims apnews.com/article/new-...

NEW: A @wired.com investigation based on DHS records ID’d the paramilitary Border Patrol units involved in high-profile violent confrontations with civilians during Midway Blitz—and much more. @awinston.bsky.social & @regret.bsky.social w/ the scoop www.wired.com/story/border...

"Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz laid out in the starkest terms yet that Israel plans to occupy nearly 10% of the country. ...Katz previously specified that Shiites would not be allowed to return and likened Israel’s strategy in Lebanon to that in Gaza." www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/w...

www.startribune.com/minnesota-su... Interesting development as DAs and state AGs seeking to hold federal agents accountable for abuse navigate pretty uncharted waters

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026... this is really so outrageous. one of the defendants wasn't even at the protest, was only charged w concealing a document (for "moving leftwing zines" !) and now faces up to 40 years in federal prison.

Based on something I dug up for this piece – that Santa Clara DA Jeff Rosen's campaign website has a "fighting Anti-Semitism" page where he boasts about prosecuting the Stanford students – the students' lawyers have moved to kick Rosen's office off its retrial. boltsmag.org/stanford-san...