A year ago this week my mother was asleep in her apartment in the Meacham Park neighborhood of Kirkwood when someone broke into her unit and executed her in a brutal gun slaying. 

As a federal prosecutor, I was always taught that my job was not merely to obtain convictions, but to seek justice. It was just as much my duty to ensure that the innocent go free as that the guilty were brought to justice.

This week, we gathered on the steps of Attorney General Schmitt’s Office for Lamar Johnson, who has been held in prison for 25 years for a crime he did not commit. We joined lawyers who demand the state allow Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner address this injustice or risk the integrity of t…

St. Louis is known for being a great sports town and one of the most charitable cities in the nation. Now a new charitable endeavor launching in 2020 will provide a platform to highlight the best of our region with the Ascension Charity Classic. 

Updated at 9:48 p.m. to include response from Mercy Health beneath original story.

Yesterday’s announcement by the Trump Administration is step one of a three-part attack on the poorest and most vulnerable that ultimately aims to deprive 3 million of our fellow Americans of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP), including half a million low-income children who would no …

“Across the nation, families are struggling with homelessness and housing insecurity. We need to treat the affordable housing shortage like the crisis that it is,” said U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, introducing the Homes for All Act, which expands public housing stock and guarantees housing as a hum…

St. Louis County’s latest legal maneuvers in the case of Keith Wildhaber, a police sergeant who was discriminated against based on his sex and sexual orientation, is a hypocritical effort to dodge responsibility for a discriminatory workplace that county officials allowed to fester. The coun…

As we enter this season of gratitude and thanks, I want to amplify a message of giving and the importance of caring for our neighbors. 

Earlier this month, ArchCity Defenders commemorated its tenth birthday with a celebration including many of our dearest friends, partners, and supporters who continue to make our work possible. We were especially honored to be joined by clients that have entrusted us to stand alongside them …

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 220 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States, and the undersigned entities, we write to demand the removal of Steph…

A common magic trick is to make something disappear right in front of the audience. We know it’s just an illusion, but a good magician makes the act entertaining.

I am today demanding that the St. Louis Board of Aldermen and the Board of Estimate & Apportionment authorize a binding public vote on any future recommendation to privatize St. Louis-Lambert International Airport.

Structural and institutionalized racism occurs everywhere — even in nice places like a great, high-achieving, culturally relevant high school like Cardinal Ritter Prep, which decided to suspend its football season.

I recently posted on social media a response to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch article regarding my expense account as St. Louis County prosecutor. But, upon further reflection, my post was inadequate given how I’ve come to understand the importance of what was really at stake in this issue. 

This school year marks the 50th Anniversary of New City School. New City was founded by a group of visionary leaders who wanted to build a strong and unique school that provided opportunities for a diverse group of children (and adults) to learn together, to be creative, and to develop a sen…

“I’m sorry, I can’t explain that.”

I have been obsessing over a road—a road on which I have never travelled in a state to which I have never been.

In 1994, the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office committed gross prosecutorial misconduct in order to convict Lamar Johnson of murder. They knowingly presented perjured testimony, fabricated facts to negate Johnson’s strongly corroborated alibi, and buried the fact that a prime witness again…

I have been obsessing over a road—a road on which I have never travelled in a state to which I have never been.

I rise today to honor the magnificent legacy of a courageous public servant, a great American, a great champion for the voiceless, a son of Detroit, my mentor, my colleague and my dear friend, the late Congressman John James Conyers Jr.

It is dead near impossible for me to understand what has recently transpired in Syria. I've been fixated on my television screen as I watch horrors unfold before my very eyes. As a Kurd, born in Northern Iraq, fleeing for my life as Saddam Hussein tried to eliminate my family and village, I …

The Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic at Washington University School of Law recently published a report titled “Environmental Racism in St. Louis”.  This report detailed that in St. Louis, blacks suffer from poor environmental regulations at a greater rate than their white peers. In su…

This week marks the launch of a partnership between Governor Parson’s office and Mayor Lyda Krewson’s administration. Recently a meeting was conducted at City Hall that included Parson, Krewson, St. Louis County officials, and state agencies, yet excluded the region’s two African-American he…

My mother recently passed away, and as I reflected on her life and thought about my work in women’s health, I couldn’t help but consider the impact “isms” had on her health and well-being across her 85 years.

It is dead near impossible for me to understand what has recently transpired in Syria. I've been fixated on my television screen as I watch horrors unfold before my very eyes. As a Kurd, born in Northern Iraq, fleeing for my life as Saddam Hussein tried to eliminate my family and village, I …

For many young people looking to improve their lives, college may seem just out of reach. It’s not that they don’t want to go to college, but many can’t afford the high costs associated with higher education.

“The extent to which the 1960 undercount has shortchanged inner-city residents of the political representation and economic assistance to which they are entitled is incalculable. Two million blacks missed in 1960 could symbolize the loss of five congressmen and scores of state legislators to…

A recent poll, conducted by the Missouri Scout for its subscribers, asked Missourians a number of questions about gun control. The results were unexpected, given the perception around gun issues in our state, in that 77 percent of those surveyed support required background checks for all gun…

The days are officially shorter, 90-degree temperature highs are behind us (hopefully) and we can already taste holiday feasts and sweet potato pies. The last quarter of 2019 is here. Fall has arrived, but I can’t stop thinking about the summer pool party that shifted the way I see myself.

When it’s time to vote, will you be able to cast your ballot?

On October 3, Andrew D. Martin was inaugurated as Washington University’s 15th chancellor. The following is an excerpt from his inauguration address, putting into broader context his WashU Pledge, a bold new financial aid program that will provide a free undergraduate education to incoming, …

World Habitat Day was established by the United Nations as “a day to reflect on the state of our towns and cities and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter.” As a transplanted St. Louisan and CEO of our local affiliate, Habitat for Humanity Saint Louis, I am proud to celebrate the wo…

“I started when there were no cameras and no newspapers writing nice things about you, instead they were writing all sorts of ugly things,” said Juanita Jones Abernathy. “But we kept going. It wasn’t about us. It wasn’t about me. It has always been about right and righteousness. Justice and …

Why is it that Natural Bridge Avenue – a main thoroughfare on the North Side of St. Louis, a street teaming with many places of business – is such an eyesore? There are vacant lots filled with trash, an empty filling station property prone to vagrants the homeless and debris, a vacant old Na…

I was on the phone with a friend when the news came up, almost off-hand. He mentioned a police officer had just shot a teenager right down the street. Hanging up the phone, I walked outside to see a crowd moving up the road. I followed, and as we walked, more of my neighbors streamed out the…

St. Louis elections are broken. Too often, our leaders are elected by the few, instead of the many. When winners don’t have a mandate to govern, big money special interests have too much power. We agree with The St. Louis American editorial, written when the 2019 aldermanic president primary…

I’m for safer streets. I’m for Kimberly Gardner.

The killings must stop! There is nothing on this earth that is as brutal as watching children dying. The death of young children – for children to never see the rise of the morning sun, the love in their parents’ eyes, playtime with siblings and friends or growing up – is especially heartbreaking.

I strongly support Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to launch a formal impeachment inquiry against President Trump, an urgent measure that I have supported for more than three months.

Missouri Chief Justice George W. Draper III gave a stinging rebuke to Missouri lawyers in his address at the joint annual meeting of The Missouri Bar and the Judicial Conference of Missouri on September 19. This is edited from his remarks.

Today, other stakeholders in the criminal justice system and I had a productive conversation about how to address the chronic violent crime St. Louis has been plagued with for more than four decades. I appreciate the invitation from Governor Parsons to collaborate on these important issues. …

Second chances are lifelines.

In “Before the Mayflower,” a classic black history text by Lerone Bennett, he writes: “Few ships before or since have unloaded such a momentous cargo.” The ship in question was an English pirate ship. That ship, in the summer of 1619, had stolen its “cargo” from a Portuguese vessel. The Port…

The recent demise of Norman R. Seay is another great loss to our communities’ legendary civil rights leadership team. He was a true warrior for freedom, equality and civil rights whom I stood with many times as we confronted the bigotry and oppression of segregation in St. Louis. He was a tr…

As this country continues to experience a crisis in affordable housing and homelessness the Trump Administration’s release of its proposal to reform housing finance falls short of many of the important principles outlined by the Democratic Caucus for fair, balanced, and comprehensive housing…

One group, a group with the most power to compel compliance, seems almost exempt for discussion of sexual abuse of women and almost exempt from full prosecution: police officers.

“The biggest movement and shift that we’ve seen in this culture is simply because of the victims. When victims and survivors are coming to the legislative bodies and they’re telling their stories and they’re appealing, we’ve seen movement,” said U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Georgia), mother of 1…

On a 2017 segment of “On Being with Krista Tippett,” civil rights icon and mentor to many Ruby Sales recounts the moment she learned to look beyond physical devastation and ask a deeper question that, when answered, has the ability to cut to the source of brokenness and pain: Where does it hurt?

Officials hosting the St. Louis Crime Summit for the St. Louis region on Tuesday, September 10 did not include any elected prosecutors. Despite the overwhelming message sent by St. Louis city and county voters through the election of Wesley Bell and me as top prosecutors, neither of us was i…