UR coverage of impacted families' healing events in 2022 & a summary of our new upcoming series on the case of Marvin Haynes.

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Hello wonderful people,

We hope you all are doing okay in this new year. As we approach the Feb. 2 anniversary of the Minneapolis Police killing of Amir Locke, we see the stats from last year and see that police killings reached a crescendo with record numbers of Americans being killed by police in 2022, while the Biden administration has simultaneously given sizable increases to police department budgets across the U.S. As attention to the issue decreased, until recently with the Tyre Nichols killing in Memphis, those who are affected by police violence haven't stopped living their nightmare. Impacted families in the Twin Cities held numerous events in 2022, keeping the movement alive against what many families call “police terror.”

Unicorn Riot ([link removed]) has remained on the ground to document the continued fight against police violence. This newsletter provides a summary of some of our media on the topic in the past year, including Unicorn Riot's podcast, The Mothers Podcast ([link removed]) , a special on Communities United Against Police Brutality, and coverage of the Emmett Till case along with a report from last week's attempted protest for Tyre Nichols in Minneapolis. But first, we provide a sneak peek at our new investigative series on the case of Marvin Haynes - which will start dropping in early February!


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WRONGFULLY CONVICTED AND OVER-SENTENCED IN MINNESOTA - THE CASE OF MARVIN HAYNES


Throughout recent years in the Twin Cities, family members of incarcerated loved ones have been organizing for cases to be re-examined and inmates to be released. In the upcoming weeks and months, Unicorn Riot will be releasing its investigative series on the wrongful conviction of Marvin Haynes, who was sentenced to life in prison at the age of 17 for a murder he says he didn’t commit. As of this writing, he remains imprisoned at the Stillwater Correctional Facility. He has been in prison for over 18 years.



Unicorn Riot conducted interviews and reviewed thousands of pages of court documents, trial transcripts and police reports in the course of our investigation into Haynes’ case. Over and over, those documents and conversations revealed a pattern of coercion of teenage witnesses by police, an investigation completely lacking physical evidence linking Haynes to the scene, repeated violations of police eyewitness identification procedures, and an overall pattern of racial bias.


In the midst of Unicorn Riot’s investigation, one of the state’s key witnesses, Marvin’s younger cousin Isiah Harper [pictured below], admitted to lying about Marvin’s guilt at trial. Harper, who was only 14 at the time of the murder, told Unicorn Riot that Minneapolis Police got him to say what they wanted him to say by threatening him with decades behind bars. They continued to coerce his testimony despite him telling judges and juries over and over that he was lying and that the police had made the story up.


In this series, we’ll walk you through the case of Marvin Haynes—from the murder of Randy Sherer at Jerry’s Flower Shop in Minneapolis’ Northside, to the ensuing investigation and trial. Along the way, we’ll talk to witnesses, family members, community activists, ex-cops, and even politicians about the case and the broader context in which it unfolded: the tough-on-crime era that packed the nation’s prisons with disproportionate numbers of Black and Brown people, and the ruthless reign of Amy Klobuchar as Hennepin County Attorney.


THE MOTHERS PODCAST

Last year, honoring Mother’s Day, Unicorn Riot released its first 10-episode season of The Mothers Podcast ([link removed]) , featuring the stories of ten mothers who’ve lost their children to police violence. The series puts a spotlight on mothers from across the U.S. who've become members of a club that no one would wish to join. These mothers’ stories go beyond the headlines of each case, dissecting the pain, aftermath and the struggle for accountability for the killing of their child. This exploration unveils mothers supporting mothers to overcome grief and create change within their communities all across the country.

The Mothers Podcast ([link removed]) features the work of Unicorn Riot interviews going back to 2018 and is a precursor to Unicorn Riot’s upcoming full-length documentary film, ‘The Mothers.’ Starting on Mother’s Day 2022, episodes were released weekly leading up to the annual banquet that Kim Handy-Jones holds that brings mothers of stolen lives together for a weekend. Listen to all of the episodes in the player below or scroll down the page for specific episodes.

The podcast series is hosted by independent journalist Georgia Fort and Niko Georgiades of Unicorn Riot. Each episode is edited and mixed by DJ Skizz who provides original music along with original songs by MC Longshot and recorded and engineered by Malcolm Wells, along with editing and producing by Tarik Thornton (Different Worlds Music Group).

The mothers featured are: Ep. 1 Dorothy Copp Elliott ([link removed]) (Archie Elliott III), Ep. 2 Marion Gray Hopkins ([link removed]) (Gary Hopkins, Jr.), Ep. 3 Yolanda McNair ([link removed]) (Adaisha Miller), Ep. 4 Montye Benjamin ([link removed]) (Jayvis Benjamin), Ep. 5 Toni Biegert ([link removed]) (Joseph Biegert), Ep. 6 Kimberly Davis ([link removed]) (Kimoni Davis), Ep. 7 Matilda Smith ([link removed]) (Jaffort Smith), Ep. 8 Hope Coleman ([link removed]) (Terrence Coleman), Ep. 9 Lisa Simpson ([link removed]) (Richard Risher), Ep. 10 Kim Handy-Jones
([link removed]) (Cordale Handy).

For more on the series, see our landing page ([link removed]) and listen on YouTube and Vimeo and across podcast platforms: Apple ([link removed]) , Spotify ([link removed]) , Google Podcasts ([link removed]) , Amazon Music/Audible ([link removed]) , iHeartRadio ([link removed]) , Stitcher ([link removed]) , Podcast Addict ([link removed]) , Podchaser ([link removed]) , Podcast Index ([link removed]) , Podvine ([link removed]) , Player FM
([link removed]) , Deezer ([link removed]) , TuneIn ([link removed]) , and Reason ([link removed]) .
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The Mothers Podcast - Click Image for YouTube Playlist

IMPACTED FAMILIES CONTINUE QUEST FOR CHANGE AS U.S. POLICE KILL MOST PEOPLE ON RECORD IN 2022

From weekends of intentional healing to press conferences, rallies, and marches, hundreds of family members who’ve lost their loved ones to police killings, community violence and the prison system continue their quest for healing, accountability, and justice.

Since the massive uprisings of 2020, several more young Black men in Minnesota have been killed by (mostly white) police, including Dolal Idd ([link removed]) , Daunte Wright ([link removed]) , Winston Smith ([link removed]) , Tekle Sundberg ([link removed]) (stay tuned for an upcoming exclusive with Tekle's parents), and within a span of 66 days ([link removed]) from Nov. 28, 2021 to Feb. 2, 2022 three Black men were killed in MN: Christopher Fiafonou ([link removed]) , Noah Kelley
([link removed]) , and Amir Locke ([link removed]) .

Even after unprecedented civil unrest and guilty verdicts against indicted police officers in the high profile cases of George Floyd ([link removed]) and Daunte Wright ([link removed]) , elected officials continue to avoid drafting new laws protecting Black people from being killed. Police kill Black men at a rate of 2.5 times more than white ([link removed]) men, meanwhile Indigenous people are killed at an even higher rate than Black people, per statistics ([link removed]) .

The majority of the families impacted by police terror in the Twin Cities area have yet to receive any form of justice or even an apology for their loved ones death at the hands of police. The impacted families face a litany of challenges in every aspect of life dealing with the aftermath of the killing, including being harassed ([link removed]) . To help each other, many families have bonded together, forming support groups to cope with legal, emotional, and economic pressures.

Although a global mass movement against police brutality and anti-Blackness spawned from Minneapolis in 2020 after
George Floyd ([link removed]) was killed, the Twin Cities was already rife with anti-police activism and impacted families supporting each other after officers killed their loved ones with impunity.

While the larger street movement has waned since 2020, with most large protests and actions ceasing for now, organizing by these families continues.

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Say Their Names March 2022 Draws Dozens of Impacted Families

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Impacted Families From Police Killings Hold "Night of Honor"
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SPOTLIGHT ON NON-PROFIT COMMUNITIES UNITED AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY

For over two decades, the volunteer-run nonprofit Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB) has been supporting community members brutalized by police. Whether it’s holding public press conferences and demonstrations demanding police accountability, supporting impacted families behind the scenes or writing legislative bills, volunteers of CUAPB are a stalwart in the movement against police terror. In a December 2022 article we spotlight some of their programs ([link removed]) like the Stolen Lives Fund, the Reinvestigations Workgroup, and some of the successes of the litigation unit which just recently helped the family of Marcus Golden receive a $1.3M settlement with the St. Paul Police ([link removed]) for the killing of Marcus in 2015.
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CUAPB Unveil Lengthy Scroll of Names of People Killed from Police Interactions

'DO NOT GIVE UP FIGHTING' - SIXTY-SEVEN YEARS LATER EMMETT TILL'S FAMILY NOTCHES SOME WINS

After 67 years, the family of Emmett Till have shown what it means to not give up fighting. The year of 2022 was a really important year for the family and the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation. Investigating on their own, they discovered an unserved warrant on the last living accomplice in Till’s gruesome 1955 lynching, had a federal hate crimes bill named the Emmett Till Antilynching Act of 2022 ([link removed]) pass in March and are ending the year with a 9-foot statue of Emmett being unveiled in Greenwood and a motion picture feature called Till released in theaters.

Read our special Emmett Till’s Family Finds Unserved Warrant, Has Statue Erected & Movie Released 67 Years Later ([link removed]) .

This past summer, new evidence ([link removed]) was discovered by the family of Emmett Till and the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation ([link removed]) . Founder of the foundation and Till’s cousin, Deborah Watts, spoke in Saint Paul during a Say Their Names ([link removed]) march on July 30 alongside her daughter Teri Watts about their never-ending quest for justice and the new revelations they found ([link removed]) [video below]. While the Till family was searching in the basement of Mississippi’s Leflore County Courthouse, family ambassador Khali Rasheed found an unserved arrest warrant
([link removed]) dated Aug. 29, 1955 seeking the arrest of J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant along with Mrs. Roy Bryant, aka Carolyn Bryant Donham, the last living accomplice, for kidnapping Emmett Till.


“We’ve been fighting for 67 years and I want to say to all the other families – do not give up fighting.”

Deborah Watts, Cousin of Emmett Till

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Emmett Till's Cousins Speak on Finding Unserved Warrant in Courthouse Basement Sixty-Seven Years Later

MASSES OF MINNEAPOLIS POLICE SWARM TYRE NICHOLS PROTEST BEFORE IT STARTS

Just days ago on Jan. 28, 2023, dozens of Minneapolis Police cars from all five precincts, including SWAT officers, bike patrol, undercovers and a Minnesota State Patrol helicopter, suppressed a lightly attended protest for Tyre Nichols before it could start.

Nichols, a 29-year-old photographer and father of one, was pulled over, taken out of his car and pepper sprayed, tased and brutally beaten by a slew of Memphis Police officers on Jan. 7, 2023. He succumbed to his injuries three days later. Five of the now-fired officers involved have been charged with second degree murder and several other felonies.

In single-digit temperatures after 9 p.m. on Saturday night two dozen protesters gathered near the Mississippi River at Merriam Street and SE Main Street in the St. Anthony Main district of southeast Minneapolis. Meanwhile, spread across the nearby streets, police amassed themselves in small groupings of squad cars and department vehicles on various side streets and slightly hidden locations.

In a large show of force, at 9:35 p.m., a coordinated procession of heavily armed police drove to the scene with their lights on. The crowd of two dozen protesters started to then walk down the sidewalk as the police slowly drove down the cobblestones of Main Street and flanked the protesters, shining their window-side high beams on them. Read the full report ([link removed]) - video below.
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Masses of Minneapolis Police Swarm Protest for Tyre Nichols Before it Started
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