Voting-rights groups in Michigan are working to increase awareness about and access to voting in jails.

In Michigan, anyone not serving a prison sentence is eligible to vote, although there are barriers often making it nearly impossible for those in jail pre- or mid-trial. They may not be fully aware of their voting rights, and lack internet access and the materials needed to learn about candidates and issues, or to register and cast a ballot.

Local groups are working to increase voter outreach in jails, and advocating for policies to make it easier.

Percy Glover, member of the Voting Access for All Coalition and a Genessee County Ambassador, explained part of the challenge of getting people in jail reconnected with voting.

"Being in jail and being in prison is very destructive on people. They doubt the system. They don't trust the system," Glover pointed out. "Some of them may have been also wrongfully arrested, wrongfully detained, so why would I be interested in voting?"

Glover urged educating eligible voters in jail, and building out jail-based voting systems across all county jails in Michigan. He also hopes Michigan will follow Maine, Vermont and Washington, D.C., in allowing people in prison to vote as well.

Amani Sawari, justice services director for Spread the Vote, which is partnering with Michigan to create a "vote-by-mail in jail program" program. They help with voter registration by paying for expenses required for jailed voters to obtain an ID, and providing stamps, envelopes, forms and voter guides.

"Our goal is to create if not an in-person program, at least a remote process for jailed voters," Sawari emphasized. "To not only register while incarcerated, but to also receive their absentee ballot to their place of incarceration, so that they can fully participate in voting."

Other states where Spread the Vote is working to facilitate jail-based voting include neighboring Wisconsin and Indiana. As Juneteenth approaches this Sunday, the Voting Access for All Coalition is spotlighting the ways social issues like poverty and race are intertwined in the criminal legal system as well as affecting voting rights.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Whether state courts are allowed to review the validity of redistricting by state legislatures is at the heart of a case to be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court.

A ruling in Moore v. Harper would allow for the creation of hyperpartisan voting districts which could not be challenged under judicial review by state courts, allowing state legislatures to be the sole authority responsible for developing the redistricting maps.

Vincent Bonventre, professor at Albany Law School, said the effects of the ruling would be long-lasting.

"A party in power that draws a redistricting map that very heavily favors that party in power," Bonventre pointed out. "Then therefore makes it an almost certainty that the party in power is going to win a disproportionate number of elections."

In New York, it could result in a majority Democratic rule and would overrule the decision in Harkenrider v. Hochul, which threw out a voting map drawn up by Democrats in the New York Legislature considered gerrymandered. Depending on the Supreme Court's ruling in Moore v. Harper, the New York map could be reconsidered for future use.

According to Ballotopedia, 48 of the 50 states have overwhelmingly Democratic or Republican-controlled legislatures, and depending on the outcome of the case, could remain so through redistricting.

Bonventre is unsure if states would be able to pass laws to blunt the effects of the ruling. However, he contended he knows what would be best for the voters.

"If we allow these extremely partisan redistricting by the state legislatures, so that the party in power disproportionately wins congressional seats, that is clearly contrary to the preferences of the voters in that state," Bonventre argued.

He sees strong legal arguments on both sides of the case, but noted allowing state courts to remain as a check to the legislature's power on redistricting would ultimately preserve the integrity of voting. It also lets voters decide who they want to represent them, rather than elected officials choosing whom they need to get reelected.

Albuquerque has been thrown into the national spotlight after the shootings of four Muslim men, including three in the past two weeks, prompting President Joe Biden to express his outrage over what appear to be hate crimes.

The nation's largest nonprofit Muslim civil rights group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who can provide information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the killings.

Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the first killing last November seemed random, but it is clearly not the case.

"It's just unprecedented that you would have these attacks over, now more than nine-month period," Hooper asserted. "Always in these cases, somebody knows something, and they just need an incentive to come forward."

The most recent homicide occurred late Friday night. Naeem Hussain, 25, had been a U.S. citizen for less than a month when he was shot just hours after attending a funeral for two of the recent victims. Over the weekend, the Albuquerque Police said a dark gray or silver, four-door sedan with tinted windows, perhaps a Volkswagen, may be involved in the shootings.

Albuquerque police officers have adjusted shifts and schedules to monitor the city's mosques and places of prayer in the Muslim community. Because the area does not have a large Muslim population, Hooper said the targeted killings have created significant fear.

"We're working with law enforcement authorities, we're working with the local Muslim community and just trying to get through this horrific series of events," Hooper explained. "Hopefully, it can prevent anything from occurring in the future."

Albuquerque has already recorded 75 homicides this year, a comparable number to 2021, which was the city's deadliest year on record.

Ohio's last execution was four years ago today, and advocates for ending the death penalty are hopeful it remains the last.

At noon, people at rallies for a "Day of Hope" in Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland will call for an end to capital punishment.

Kwame Ajamu of Cleveland is among the 11 people in Ohio exonerated from death row. Now the Chairman of the group Witness to Innocence, he explained that, at age 17, he was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death due to false eyewitness testimony and police misconduct.

"It took 39 years of my life to prove my innocence and become exonerated," said Ajamu. "We should not be in that barbaric stage anymore in our humanity, and as long as I have breath, I will stand forcibly against capital punishment."

In the Ohio Legislature, House Bill 183 and Senate Bill 103 have bipartisan support and if passed, would make Ohio the 24th state to abolish the death penalty. But some who favor the death penalty believe it's morally justified for those who commit murder.

Ohio has had an unofficial execution moratorium for four years due to ongoing conflicts with pharmaceutical suppliers, with eight reprieves already issued for executions this year.

Bekky Baker, program manager for Death Penalty & Peace and Nonviolence with the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center in Cincinnati, said the state has never been this close to abolishing capital punishment.

"We've had some terribly botched executions," said Baker. "We have an inability to obtain the injection drugs. So there's really no humane way to kill a person. So, we keep pushing back execution dates - and really, we should just get rid of the system as a whole."

And a majority in polls are concerned about innocent people being put to death. Ajamu argued that Ohioans deserve a system of equal justice.

"The people here deserve - with knowledge, understanding, and proper reasoning - a better focal point towards how we should go forward as human beings," said Ajamu, "as opposed to staying in the dark and always just wanting to put somebody to death."

A 2020 Ohio poll found 69% of Democrats and 53% of Republicans support death penalty repeal.

This story was produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.