By Kara Dansky, Senior Counsel, ACLU Center for Justice & Sarah Solon, Communications Strategist, ACLU at 2:52pm
Nine-year-old Aiyana Jones was sleeping on the couch next to her grandmother when a SWAT team threw a “flashbang” through the window of her Detroit, Michigan home. The “flashbang” – a stun grenade originally developed for wartime raids – immediately set fire to Aiyana’s blanket. Seconds later, the SWAT team stormed through the door, and confused by the deafening and blinding effects of the “flashbang,” mistakenly shot Aiyana through the neck, killing her.
By Sarah Solon, Communications Strategist, ACLU at 5:05pm
We have all heard cops in Hollywood assure suspects that if they cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for them. But is this promise actually fulfilled for people in the real world? This blog series presents the real stories about the state of indigent defense fifty years after the right was first recognized in Gideon v. Wainwright.
