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Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates - Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor for The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues for TheAtlantic.com and the magazine. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle. More

Born in 1975, the product of two beautiful parents. Raised in West Baltimore—not quite The Wire, but sometimes ill all the same. Studied at the Mecca for some years in the mid-’90s. Emerged with a purpose, if not a degree. Slowly migrated up the East Coast with a baby and my beloved, until I reached the shores of Harlem. Wrote some stuff along the way.

If He Can Be A Lawyer, Then He Can Be A Lawyer!

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Oct 24 2009, 1:57 PM ET Comment

As you watch this, remember that this is Cameron Todd Willingham's defense attorney. The interview is incredible. It's like watching a root-docter, who's just performed a heart transplant, try to explain why the patient is dead. I deeply suspect that this is all unexceptional. There is no fool-proof anything in this world--least of all a death penalty. The New Yorker piece on Willingham is here.

You see this sort of thing, and you start to believe that in some parts of this country, there really isn't a such thing as conservatism anymore--there's just a white populism, a deep-seated belief that someone like Sarah Palin should have the launch codes, that people like this should have hand in matters of life and death. It's incredible.



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