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One day, two executions. Florida executioners killed James Hitchcock by lethal injection on Thursday for a murder that took place nearly 50 years ago. He was tried and convicted three times — twice by non-unanimous juries. Florida Today Shortly afterward, Texas executioners killed James Broadnax by lethal injection for his role in a double murder nearly 18 years ago. The Associated Press Broadnax was convicted of felony murder in a case with lingering questions about racial bias in the selection of his capital jury, and the prosecution’s use of rap music as evidence to condemn him. The Texas Tribune TMP Context: Rap music helped send him to death row. Artists fought to spare Broadnax. The Marshall Project

The return of the gun show loophole. The Trump administration has announced 30 changes to gun regulations that will make it easier for people to buy and sell firearms without background checks or other obstacles that could prevent someone from using an illegal weapon. The deregulation came after Robert Cekada was confirmed by the Senate to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The Associated Press It’s a dramatic shift in firearm policy backed by Republicans. PBS More: Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the U.S. There’s now a national program, titled “ENOUGH! Plays to End Gun Violence,” that produces plays written by teenagers. The Trace

More trouble for James Comey? Federal prosecutors in Virginia are reportedly pursuing charges against the former FBI director for allegedly leaking classified information to a Columbia University law professor. Bloomberg Law The indictment of Comey in North Carolina earlier this week, widely seen as a baseless attempt at political retribution, has earned Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche praise from his boss, President Donald Trump. NBC News More: A company called One Taste, which describes itself as an “orgasmic meditation” venture but which prosecutors call a “sex cult,” is now lobbying the Trump administration for clemency for two of its executives sentenced to prison in March. CBS News

Immigration nation. Federal immigration officials deported 15 people last month to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country to which they had no previous ties. The Latin American immigrants, some of whom say they had pending asylum claims in the U.S., are now essentially trapped in a hotel in a nation ravaged by violence. NPR Two teenage brothers from the DRC on student visas in Mississippi were seized by ICE agents this week and sent into immigration detention in Louisiana. They were released on Thursday. The New York Times New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has proposed a more limited ban on cooperation between local law enforcement agents and federal immigration agents than legislators support. New York Focus

An update on the capital case of Christopher Barbour in Alabama. Last year, a federal judge ordered that he be given a new trial after DNA evidence taken from the scene of a 1992 rape and murder incriminated another man. Pointing to a long-ago confession, state prosecutors are still trying to block that new trial and keep Barbour on the state’s death row. AL.com

Federal prosecutors this week dropped felony conspiracy charges against a group of anti-ICE protesters in Chicago known as the “Broadview Six.” Only four of those protesters remain as defendants, and they face misdemeanor charges in a closely-watched free speech case tied to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation in Illinois. Chicago Sun-Times

Louisiana prosecutors and a special grand jury have indicted the sheriff of the New Orleans jail from which 10 prisoners escaped last year. Sheriff Susan Hutson, and the jail’s chief financial officer, Bianka Brown, face misconduct charges stemming from that escape. The New York Times

The man who killed two people and injured nine more in a gun attack at Brown University in Rhode Island in December wanted retribution over perceived personal failures, FBI officials said this week. The Guardian Claudio Manuel Neves Valente acted alone and had no connection to terrorism, officials said. The Boston Globe

The homicide rate in Oakland, California, has plummeted over the past three years after city officials rejuvenated their gang violence prevention program that had been allowed to lapse. “We’re going to talk about keeping you and those you love alive and free,” says a local pastor involved in the program that includes life coaches. “If you put down the gun, start taking the (city’s) services, we’ll help you find another way.” The Associated Press

It’s long past time for New York to reform its parole laws, says a man who once spent 34 years in solitary confinement. “The fact is, nobody gains a thing from keeping old people in prison long after they have grown into decent people who wish harm to no one, who wish they could undo the harm they caused in their younger, more foolish years, and do better in the time they have remaining in this lifetime than they did in the past.” Solitary Watch/Truthout

United States v. James Comey. “The former FBI director has an unusually strong argument for vindictive prosecution” in a case about the arrangement of seashells. Reason More conservative criticism of the Comey indictment. National Review “What Todd Blanche confessed last night is that he authorized potentially illegal spying on Jim Comey…” Emptywheel

The worst U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a century. The Republican justices’ choice to further gut the Voting Rights Act “will bleach the halls of Congress, state legislatures, and local bodies like city councils, by ending the protections of Section 2 of the act, which had provided a pathway to assure that voters of color would have some rudimentary fair representation.” Slate

Political violence is its own twisted ideology. “If you believe in political violence as a necessary or tolerable means to an end, you are not a Democrat or a Republican or an independent; you are—first and foremost—an extremist whose views are in direct conflict with the American system of self-governance as it is currently designed.” The Atlantic

Apply the aptly-named Minnesota Protocols to the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents. Labeling their killings as “summary executions and applying the Minnesota Protocol will help advance criminal and civil accountability. It will also clarify what structural changes are legally mandated by human rights treaties that should be applied to be part of U.S. law and practice to prevent these tragedies from repeating.” Just Security

Native American organizations and their ICE contracts. Some tribal groups have backed away from deals with federal immigration officials in the face of public criticism. But so far, the Bering Straits Native Corporation in Alaska has refused to cut ties. The New Republic

Lawsuit challenges Idaho’s new law criminalizing public bathroom use. Six transgender residents sued the state this week in federal court, seeking to strike down a measure that makes it a misdemeanor offense (punishable by up to one year in prison) for using bathrooms that do not match their sex at birth. The law is the most restrictive in the U.S., applying both to public places and private businesses. The New York Times

“Even if they are seen as somebody who is exonerated, there is still a stigma as somebody who has been in prison.” People who endure wrongful convictions often find that their ordeal does not end when they are freed. Calvin Duncan, for example, overcame a wrongful conviction to become the duly elected clerk of the criminal court in New Orleans, a post that Republican legislators in Louisiana are trying to abolish. The Associated Press

“It’s given me an avenue to put into words how I feel and to remedy the absence I have, the aching in my chest.” Incarcerated women are encouraged to write by the Children's Literature Project, developed by a University of Maryland professor, which is run through Poetic Justice, a national nonprofit that organizes prison writers’ workshops. Maryland Today

How to get police to solve more crimes. “Priority areas include reducing investigator caseloads for nonfatal shootings, building better relationships with victims to encourage cooperation with police, and coordinating with prosecution to ensure high-quality arrests and convictions.” Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation TMP Context: The hidden toll of unsolved murder cases in St. Louis. The Marshall Project