Media Issues
Gloria Abraham speaks out on the Michigan murder trial of her 13-year-old son
"People need to become aware that the government can do these things"
By Larry Roberts, November 16, 1999
The World Socialist Web Site spoke to family members of Nathaniel Abraham, including his mother Gloria Abraham, outside the Pontiac, Michigan courtroom where the 13-year-old's murder trial is under wa...
Background to the Nathaniel Abraham case
The origins of the juvenile justice system in America
By Alden Long, November 11, 1999
The trial of 13-year-old Nathaniel Abraham in Pontiac, Michigan has focused attention on the nation's juvenile justice system. Abraham has been charged as an adult for first-degree murder under a 1997...
Federal appeals court upholds racial profiling by upstate New York police
By Jamie Baker, November 11, 1999
On October 26 a federal appeals court panel upheld the constitutionality of a 1992 police sweep of hundreds of young black men in the upstate New York town of Oneonta, home of a branch of the State Un...
Forensic psychiatrist speaks on the Abraham case: "When Nathaniel needed a system there was no system there for him"
By Larry Roberts, November 10, 1999
Gerald A. Shiener is a forensic psychiatrist who testified for the defense in the Nathaniel Abraham trial taking place in Pontiac, Michigan. The World Socialist Web Site spoke to Dr. Shiener outside t...
Michigan prosecutes 13-year-old as an adult
Closing arguments due in murder trial of Nathaniel Abraham
By Kate Randall and Larry Roberts, November 10, 1999
The defense in the Nathaniel Abraham trial rested its case yesterday, and closing arguments are expected today. Abraham is on trial in Pontiac, Michigan, charged with first-degree murder in the Octobe...
Letters on the Michigan murder trial of 13-year-old
November 9, 1999
The WSWS has received a number of letters on the Nathaniel Abraham trial now taking place in Pontiac, Michigan. Abraham, who was 11 years old—and functioning at the mental level of a 6- to 8-yea...
New York City police cleared in fatal shooting
By Fred Mazelis, November 6, 1999
The family of Gidone Busch reacted bitterly to the exoneration this week of the four New York City police officers involved in the shooting death of the 31-year-old mentally disturbed man. A grand jur...
Michigan murder trial of 13-year-old: Testimony undercuts prosecution case
By Kate Randall and Larry Roberts, November 4, 1999
The prosecution rested its case November 2 in the murder trial of Nathaniel Abraham. The defense begins calling witnesses today. The case is being tried in the Pontiac, Michigan courtroom of Judge Eug...
On-the-spot report from Michigan courtroom: Scenes from the murder trial of a 13-year-old
By Kate Randall, October 29, 1999
Thirteen-year-old Nathaniel Abraham was led into a Pontiac, Michigan courtroom on Monday, October 18, as jury selection began in his murder trial. His slight, barely five-foot figure was shackled in l...
US schedules five executions this week
By Kate Randall, October 29, 1999
Five executions were planned this week in the United States, which would bring the total of state killings to 86 this year, more than any year since 1954. The US has executed 581 people since the rein...
Highest number of US executions in 45 years
By Kate Randall, October 2, 1999
Seventy-six executions have taken place in the United States in 1999, the highest yearly total of executions in the US in 45 years. Scheduled executions on the nation's death row, where more than 3,50...
Murder trial of Michigan child to begin October 18
By Jerry White, September 24, 1999
The trial of 13-year-old Nathaniel Abraham, one of the youngest children in the US ever prosecuted for first degree murder, is set to begin October 18. The youngster, arrested at the age of 11, is bei...
