BRYAN STEVENSON

Alabama has changed death penalty procedures to give the prison system longer to carry out executions — a move that comes after a string of troubled lethal injections in the state — and also eliminated an automatic review for trial errors.

With a guilty verdict in the sex-trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, here’s a look at what the once high-flying Jeffrey Epstein confidante was accused of and what’s next for her.

The case for and against Ghislaine Maxwell has been made, and as soon as Monday, her fate will rest squarely in the jury’s hands.

It began as a prize-winning magazine issue and became a cultural flashpoint, and now “The 1619 Project” is coming out as a book.

The Equal Justice Initiative is opening an expanded museum in Alabama that focuses on the legacy of slavery in America.

The organization that created the nation’s first memorial to lynching victims has announced a major expansion of a museum designed to trace the impact of slavery and racism through the centuries.

Videos of a Black and Latino Army lieutenant who was pepper-sprayed and handcuffed during a traffic stop in rural Virginia have been viewed millions of times.

Two books based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning “1619 Project” will be released this fall, with contributions from Jesmyn Ward, Jason Reynolds, Ibram X.

NEW YORK – Author James McBride and editor Chris Jackson were among those honored Thursday night by the Center for Fiction. Jackson, whose authors range from Ta-Nehisi Coates to Bryan Stevenson, was given the Medal for Editorial Excellence Award. Jackson runs the One World imprint of Penguin Random House. The Center for Fiction awarded its First Novel Prize to Raven Leilani for “Luster,” the story of a young Black woman's affair with a married, middle-aged white man. Finalists included this year's Booker Prize winner, Douglas Stuart's “Shuggie Bain.”

FILE - In this Saturday, June 21, 2014 file photo, Belarusian human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski is welcomed by his supporters at a railway terminal in Minsk, Belarus. The prominent Belarus opposition figure Ales Bialiatski and leading imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh have been awarded the 2020 Swedish Right Livelihood Award, sometimes referred to as the Alternative Nobel, along with activists from Nicaragua and the United States. (AP Photo/Dmitry Brushko, File)STOCKHOLM – A prominent Belarus opposition figure and an imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer on Thursday were awarded the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes referred to as the “Alternative Nobel,” together with activists from Nicaragua and the United States. Created in 1980, the annual Right Livelihood Award honors efforts that the prize founder, Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, felt were being ignored by the Nobel prizes. Earlier recipients of the Right Livelihood Award include Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Lee Daniels, Lulu Wang and Taraji P. Henson are among the talent participating in a series of virtual panels about inclusion and equity in Hollywood hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The organization that puts on the Oscars said Thursday that the panels rolling out through September and October will be available to the public. Entitled Academy Dialogues: It Starts with Us, the series is part of the film academys push to further equity and inclusion in its ranks and in the entertainment industry. The series launched last month with a conversation between Whoopi Goldberg and civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson about the power of narrative. Its currently available on YouTube.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. Zion Williamson will be out of quarantine by the time New Orleans plays in the first official game of the NBA restart at Walt Disney World. The NBA said Saturday that Williamson will have to serve a four-day quarantine for leaving the leagues Disney bubble on July 16 to tend to an urgent family matter. He returned to Disney on Friday night and immediately went into quarantine. The most important thing is we hope everythings OK with him, Pelicans forward Derrick Favors said Saturday, shortly after the NBA revealed the four-day quarantine determination. COACHES PINSNBA coaches started wearing a large pin during games this weekend, the message reading Coaches for Racial Justice.Its not uncommon for NBA coaches to wear pins or ribbons to support various causes.

In just about any other year, Juneteenth, the holiday celebrating the day in 1865 that all enslaved black people learned they had been freed from bondage, would be marked with a cookout, a parade, or a community festival. But Juneteenth 2020 will be a day of protest in may places Friday, June 19. The day is recognized in 47 states and the District of Columbia, according to the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order recognizing Juneteenth as a paid holiday for state employees. So Juneteenth is a celebratory event but were not celebrating the country.

The Equal Justice Initiative said it has now documented nearly 6,500 lynchings of black people between 1877 and 1950. The Equal Justice Initiative said it has now documented nearly 6,500 lynchings of black people between 1877 and 1950. The group, which previously documented 4,500 lynchings, on Tuesday released a new report titled Reconstruction in America that documents nearly an additional 2,000 lynchings between 1865 and 1876. In one lynching documented in the report, Perry Jeffreys, his wife, and four sons were killed in Georgia after a mob learned they planned to vote for presidential candidate Ulysses S. Grant. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a memorial to lynching victims, opened in 2018.

NEW YORK The 2019 film Just Mercy, which chronicles courtroom struggles against racial injustice and mass incarceration, will be made free on digital platforms throughout June in the wake of George Floyd's death, Warner Bros. said Tuesday. In the film, Michael B. Jordan plays attorney Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, who helps a character played by Jamie Foxx. We believe in the power of story, Warner Bros. said. The rider was initiated as a way to change long-term under-representation of people of color and women in Hollywood. Recent studies have shown that films like Just Mercy are starting to reshape the film industry.

As protests rage across the U.S. over the death of George Floyd, Warner Brothers says it wants to help the nation understand where the anger is coming from. The companys 2019 movie, Just Mercy, can be streamed for free on various digital platforms through the end of the month. In a statement, Warner Brothers says it wants to help people learn more about the systematic racism that plagues our society. The company also says the movie can help viewers understand how past injustices led the nation to where it is today. Warner Brothers, like CNN, is a division of Warner Media.

NEW YORK As nationwide protests against racism and police violence continue, readers are seeking out books old and new on race and criminal justice. Robin Diangelo's White Fragility," Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow" and Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy were among the works high on the bestseller lists Tuesday of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. Popular books also included James Baldwin's classic The Fire Next Time, published more than 50 years ago, and a board book for children from National Book Award winner Ibram X. Kendi, Antiracist Baby, that comes out next week. Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me, winner of the National Book Award in 2015, is an open letter to the author's son that centers on the murder of an old friend by police. Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give is a popular young adult novel, adapted into a feature film of the same name, about a young girl who sees her best friend killed at the hands of police.

The footage of Arbery’s death was not the only thing that rattled the nation’s conscience. “The slothfulness and inaction of the judicial system, in this case, is a gross testament to the blatant white racial privileges that permeates throughout our country and our institutions." A Georgia Bureau of Investigation statement said the McMichaels confronted Arbery with two firearms and that Travis McMichael fatally shot Arbery. While likening Arbery’s death to a lynching may seem like an apt comparison, doing so isn’t sufficient for understanding why the man’s death is a tragedy, said Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative. The organization has cataloged more than 4,400 racial terror lynchings in the U.S. that took place between Reconstruction and World War II.