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Advocates tell Mobile County Commission county-funded courts and sheriff’s office are violating constitutional rights, urge withholding funds
Summary
At the Oct. 27 Mobile County Commission meeting, four civil-rights advocates told commissioners they have filed notices and gathered affidavits alleging Alabama courts and law-enforcement practices—charging by information and child removals—violate the U.S. Constitution and urged commissioners to withhold county funding pending review.
At its Oct. 27 meeting, the Mobile County Commission heard four public commenters who said county-funded courts and law enforcement are participating in unconstitutional practices and urged the commission to take action.
Taniwa Downing, who identified herself as a civil-rights litigator, told the commission she is preparing litigation "on behalf of more than 700,000 people" and said she has "approximately 17,000 criminal affidavits" from Alabama charging by information rather than by grand-jury indictment. Downing cited the Fifth Amendment’s clause requiring indictment by a grand jury and Title 18 of the U.S. Code in warning that continued county support of such practices could expose officials to legal consequences. "Please don't make me have to do that," she told the commissioners, adding that she had served the state attorney general and state supreme…
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