January 18, 2021
St. Louis, Mo. — In the spirit of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., ArchCity Defenders (ACD), a holistic legal advocacy organization, has released the policy report, “Death by the State: Police Killings and Jail Deaths in St. Louis,” which centers the disturbing realities faced by families after a loved one is killed by police or dies in jail custody. The report places these devastating experiences within a broader context which includes: data on the disturbingly high rate of regional police killings and jail deaths between 2009 to 2019, a content analysis of how these incidents were reported, a section on the police officers involved, and the fiscal cost borne by the public for this system of policing.
Click here to read the report.
The report is part of ACD’s Fatal State Violence Project, a focus area of the organization that has grown over time, and will now include elements of our holistic direct services, media and policy advocacy, community collaborations, and systemic litigation. In September 2020, Emanuel Powell, a former ACD Intern, returned as a Skadden Fellow and to provide legal support to families impacted by Fatal State Violence (FSV).
“The seeds of this project were planted after I met the family of Isaiah Hammett who was killed by a SWAT team with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in the first weeks of my summer internship with ACD,” said Powell. “I am deeply grateful to ACD and the Skadden Foundation for the opportunity to return to St. Louis where there is so much need to support families like Isaiah’s.”