Alabama police department allegedly planted evidence on black men, resulting in 'almost 1,000' wrongful convictions

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published 2 December 2015

Leaked documents obtained by the Alabama Justice Project reveal that, since the mid-1990s, members of the Dothan, Alabama police department's narcotics investigation team have been planting drugs and weapons on young black men. The revelation came to light when a group of anonymous officers from the Dothan Police Department handed over documents from an internal investigation that had not been reported to federal or state officials, and that was later "covered up by the district attorney," according to the Henry County Report.

Black defendants began issuing complaints of evidence planting as early as 1996, and when the incidents were finally addressed within the department two years later, most of the officers asked about the incidents reportedly failed a polygraph test. The officers responsible for leaking the documents told the Henry County Report they believe that the evidence planting has likely resulted in "nearly a thousand wrongful convictions."

The narcotics officers involved in targeting young black men were reportedly part of a "a Neoconfederate organization" that has "advocated for blacks to return to Africa [and] published that the civil rights movement is really a Jewish conspiracy and that blacks have lower IQ's," Henry County Report reveals. Two of the three officers supervising the team, Lt. Steve Parrish, current Dothan police, and Sgt. Andy Hughes, the assistant director of Homeland Security for the State of Alabama, were reportedly in leadership positions in the Neoconfederate group.