“Integrity on the bench is not optional.” Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze resigned on Monday, shortly after she was charged with illegal tampering with public records. She will be arraigned later today for allegedly funnelling work to Mark Dottore, a longtime friend she regularly appointed to oversee divorce cases. “Integrity on the bench is not optional,” said the charging prosecutor. “Anything less erodes the foundation of our courts and our justice system.” Celebrezze’s resignation comes more than two years after The Marshall Project - Cleveland detailed her relationship with Dottore. TMP - Cleveland’s Mark Puente continues our coverage of the story. The Marshall Project

How and why people are dying in American prisons and jails. Older people behind bars die mainly from natural causes like heart conditions or cancer. Younger prisoners more often die preventable deaths, like suicide or drug overdoses. We analyzed a federal database of more than 21,000 in-custody deaths to determine causes. In more than one-third of the cases, there is simply not enough information to determine how someone died behind bars. TMP’s Ilica Mahajan and Aaron Sankin continue their coverage. The Marshall Project More from TMP: Here’s how we cleared up some of the data collected through the Death in Custody Reporting Act, a flawed federal law. The Marshall Project

Undermining Biden’s death row pardons. Prosecutors in Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana have filed new state murder charges against four former federal death row prisoners whose sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden before he left office earlier this year. Despite double jeopardy concerns, the U.S. Supreme Court apparently allows such new prosecutions. “This is completely uncharted territory,” says an ACLU lawyer who predicts lengthy litigation. The New York Times Biden removed them from death row. Now, President Donald Trump wants to put them back. The New Republic TMP Context from 2021: How Biden can reverse Trump’s death penalty expansion. The Marshall Project

More on the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking files. What’s missing from the latest release of documents tied to the disgraced financier? For starters, “financial records, internal memos from prosecutors who investigated Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking ring, key material obtained from the searches of Epstein’s palatial homes.” Politico The files contained a 1996 police report accusing Epstein of child pornography. The FBI did not follow up on the allegations. The New York Times Some victims of abuse by Epstein and his confederates felt vindicated by written records of their abuse allegations. NBC News Other victims are furious over the Justice Department’s lack of accountability and transparency. The Atlantic

A classic conflict of interest case. Todd Blanche, the deputy U.S. attorney general, violated federal conflicts laws and the ethics agreement he signed when he took office by shutting down an investigation into crypto companies while holding hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto stock. ProPublica Blanche failed to explain the disappearance of photos from the Epstein files release. NBC News More: The Justice Department has decided to appeal the rulings that resulted in the dismissal of retaliatory criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. A federal judge dismissed those cases after concluding that Lindsey Halligan was unlawfully appointed as interim U.S. attorney. Politico

Immigration nation. ICE sweeps are crushing the construction industry. Yet construction businesses are largely silent in defense of their workers. The Bulwark 911 calls from an immigration detention center in El Paso, Texas, offer grim details of dangerous conditions for asylum-seekers and other migrants. El Paso Times A newly minted immigration judge, a former Pentagon lawyer, was quickly fired by Trump officials for not denying enough asylum cases. The Associated Press ICE officials have contracted with a subsidiary of the private prison company GEO Group to locate immigrants. The Intercept Aggressive new tactics by Border Patrol agents during an immigration sweep in Los Angeles earlier this year. The New York Times

Before state legislator Melissa Hortman was assassinated in her home in June, she led a life of faith, courage and sacrifice that led her into Minnesota politics. Her friends and family, still grieving over a wanton act of gun violence, say they still can’t refer to her in the past tense, because they can’t believe she is gone. Rolling Stone

A federal judge in New York on Friday overturned the conviction of Karl Jordan, Jr. after finding that prosecutors failed to prove a motive for the killing. Jordan was convicted in 2024 of killing Jason Mizell, also known as Jam Master Jay of the rap group Run-DMC. The New York Times

A short life and a sudden violent death. Two teenagers face first-degree murder charges in the case of Danika Troy, a 14-year-old girl who went missing last month in Florida. Police say a confession led to the break in the case. The New York Times

A former Alabama judge was sentenced to 12 years in prison last week for misusing public funds. Former Lauderdale County Judge Gil Self used the county’s judicial fund to purchase guns and furniture and other lavish items, prosecutors said. AL.com

Justine Paul spent seven years in pretrial detention in Alaska waiting to be tried for murder before being released. The blood evidence used to indict him in 2015 wasn’t from the victim, lab technicians concluded years ago. That wasn’t enough to convince prosecutors to drop the charges or to prompt a judge to quickly order his release. ProPublica/Anchorage Daily News

The opioid crisis never ended. In West Virginia, children are suffering from their parents’ opioid addictions and whole communities have been wrecked economically. The New York Times TMP Context from 2019: Treatment for opioid addiction with no strings attached. The Marshall Project

Another illusory reform from the Trump administration. “Rescheduling marijauna will do little more than hand a tax break to the corporations that spent millions of dollars lobbying for it.” The Atlantic TMP Context: What Trump’s orders on marijuana and fentanyl actually do. The Marshall Project

A decade since outlaws took over an Oregon refuge. The Malheur occupation “was a rash before a fever, a symptom of our approaching political chaos. Trump was elected President, and his tenure would be marked by the ways he found common cause with militias, white supremacists, sovereign citizens, anti–public lands activists and right-wing media personalities. Malheur was not in Oregon anymore. It was in the White House.” Portland Monthly

Destroying the myth of the “tough-on-crime” presidency. “The nature and severity of the unrelated crimes Jan. 6 insurrectionists have been charged with underscores the significant public safety threats posed by Trump’s decision to forego long established DOJ process and grant blanket, day-one pardons and commutations to insurrectionists.” CREW

A return to the bad old days. “The Constitution of the Roberts Court is not color-blind. It is a Constitution that permits discrimination on the basis of race, but forbids alleviating discrimination on the basis of race. And over the next year, the Court will face more cases that could further erode both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, pushing America back toward what some on the right believe is the true, Antebellum Constitution.” The Atlantic

A scheduling note. This is the final Opening Statement of 2025. The Marshall Project is taking some time off for the holidays. Our next newsletter will be in your inbox on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. We hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season.

Correction. In Monday’s Opening Statement, we misspelled the name of Sarah Jane Tribble, the KFF Health News reporter who helped bring us the story of the failure of Ohio state psychiatric hospitals to treat patients. We apologize, especially to Sarah, for the error.

Christians are divided over Trump’s immigration policies and tactics. On Friday, Pope Leo XIV named the Rev. Manuel de Jesus Rodriguez as bishop of Palm Beach, Florida, site of the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Rodriguez is a staunch advocate for migrants. The Associated Press Some Southern Baptist leaders are telling their congregants that illegal immigration is a sin and that they should report migrants to law enforcement authorities. The New York Times

Where do U.S. taxpayers go now to get restitution? Trump’s pardons of people convicted of fraud have deprived victims of millions of dollars in restitution. Twenty people, many of them Trump allies, have had their financial penalties erased. The Washington Post

Old school. Lester Holt, the longtime NBC News anchor, covers Robert Roberson’s fight to save himself from execution in Texas. Roberson’s story “is a powerful reminder of why journalism begins with listening and why certain stories can only be understood up close.” NBC News TMP Context: Five things about Roberson’s stayed execution. The Marshall Project

When will Timothy Loehmann stop trying to be a cop? The police officer who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland in 2014 was just fired from his job as a ranger at a West Virginia resort community. It was at least the fourth time in seven years that Loehmann has left a police department after a public backlash over his hiring. The Associated Press

When police training goes bad. Welcome to the Texas Game Warden Training Center, where violent training exercises have been linked to at least a dozen deaths and hundreds of injuries over the past two decades. The Associated Press