January 8, 2025
Today the federal government boxed Minnesota investigators out of any investigation into the fatal shooting of Rene Nicole Good by ICE agent and Iraq War veteran Jonathan Ross. Secretary Noem proclaimed the state has no jurisdiction over a killing on its streets, a dubious legal proposition that flies in the face of more than 200 years of history. There’s even a Congressional statute — federal officer or agent removal jurisdiction 28 USC 1442 — allowing those officers to remove cases to federal court in certain circumstances. If they couldn’t be prosecuted by states, there’d be no need for the removal jurisdiction. Federal immunity from state prosecution only applies where the officers are acting with federal authorization, and their actions were necessary and proper. But that’s not what Yale Law grad JD Vance said today, proclaiming “absolute immunity” the officers already absolved of wrongdoing yesterday.
There is no better time than now to revisit Lila Hassan’s 2024 work documenting 59 ICE shootings in 26 states and 2 territories over 6 years. Armed and Untouchable: ICE’s history of deadly force, and ICE Agents Don’t Fire Warning Shots will shock, educate, and illuminate how we got here.
59 shootings; no consequences.
Now’s a great time to consider what would happen in a legitimate medicolegal death investigation (MDI). To do that, Paul Parker, who worked in the field for decades, joins us to discuss that work at a very high level (we don’t get into the ICE shooting on camera), and the first of two book’s he’s written about it: In the Shadows of Death: Writing Life’s Final Chapter, which is featured on Kirkus Reviews and available at your local independent bookstore.
Paul’s journey is educational and inspiring, and I hope you’ll give him a listen once his YouTube channel on death investigations launches in the coming days.
