Latest news with #TennesseeInnocenceProject
CNN
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CNN
Journalist Covering Immigration Faces Deportation - First Of All with Victor Blackwell - Podcast on CNN Audio
Right now, a journalist who has reported on immigration issues in Georgia for years is facing deportation after being arrested while covering a protest. Mario Guevara's attorney says he is in the U.S. legally yet remains in ICE custody. Victor speaks with Guevara's lawyer, Giovanni Díaz, along with Alondra Madrigal who works closely with Mario as a reporter with MG News and Guevara's son, Oscar Guevara Saenz, who is also a photojournalist for his father's new site. After protests and this week's face-off with federal agents who pulled up in their parking lot, the Los Angeles Dodgers just announced how they plan to support the immigrant community that makes up such a large part of their fan base. Los Angeles Times Sports Columnist Dylan Hernández joins Victor to react. Thomas Clardy was recently freed from prison after nearly two decades when his conviction was tossed out. That decision has now been reversed, and he could be put back in prison for a crime he says he did not commit. Clardy joins Victor, along with his attorney Jessica Van Dyke of the Tennessee Innocence Project, to discuss the case. Plus, Victor takes on President Trump's Juneteenth complaint of "too many" holidays, a grocery store's cake decorations that are going viral for all the wrong reasons, and shares his report on a meeting between two women with a special connection to each other, and the events of June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Texas. And in our 'Art is Life' segment this week, Victor shares the story of a new exhibit that's a product of tough conversations about our history. 'Out of Whole Cloth' is set in a former plantation in Alabama that is now a place of healing thanks to a partnership between the descendant of a sharecropper and the descendant of an enslaver. Victor speaks to Harpersville, Alabama Mayor Theoangelo Perkins, Nell Gottlieb and Ebony Howard of the Wallace Center for Arts and Reconciliation.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tennessee legislature clears path to hear new evidence: 'Good news for innocent people'
More innocent people in prison will get their case before a judge after a bill passed the Tennessee legislature, according to the director of the Tennessee Innocence Project. The bill, which now heads to Gov. Bill Lee's desk to be signed into law, ensures people with new evidence of innocence can petition a court to hear that evidence. The Tennessee Senate approved the bill 24-6 with bipartisan support on April 10. Chattanooga Republican Sen. Todd Gardenhire, one of the bill's sponsors, said it fills a gap in the law for people who chose to plead guilty despite being innocent. Previously, those people could not present to a judge new, non-scientific evidence — which includes things like video footage of the actual perpetrator committing the crime — after pleading guilty. Jason Gichner, executive director of the Tennessee Innocence Project, said the bill was 'good news for innocent people in Tennessee.' 'There was not a legal pathway … to help these folks,' Gichner said. 'Now there is.' One of the compromises in the bill — a joint effort of the Tennessee Innocence Project and the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference — is that district attorneys general must sign off on the petition to present the new evidence. 'The DAs are the gatekeepers for these petitions,' Gardenhire said. He added the bill will apply only in 'very rare situations of actual innocence.' Gichner said his organization tries to work collaboratively on innocence cases, anyway. 'If there's objective evidence that shows somebody is innocent, both sides should be able to work together to do the right thing and get that person out of prison,' he said. More: Nashville judge issues ruling, won't overturn dad's murder conviction in baby son's death Gichner said most other states do not have this gap in the law that currently exists in Tennessee. 'I'm grateful that the legislature took this up and realized that this is a gap in the law that we had to do something about,' Gichner said. Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him with questions, tips or story ideas at emealins@ This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Legislature clears path for more innocence claims to get day in court
