The Supreme Court of the United States has ordered a federal district court judge (PDF) to “receive testimony and make findings of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis's] innocence.” A grant of an original writ of habeas corpus has [...]
(Originally posted on Daily Kos.)
The "Prison Population and Budget Reduction Package" proposed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is like a drunk person walking home from a bar — it knows where it wants to go but oftentimes you find it stumbling off the sidewalk or turning down the wrong street.Since we [...]
"Ain’t it a great day in North Carolina!" North Carolina General Assembly Representative Larry Womble celebrated with these words this morning, moments before North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue signed into law a bill Rep. Womble championed entitled the "Racial Justice Act". The bill will allow criminal defendants facing [...]
Double Tragedies: Victims Speak Out Against the Death Penalty for People with Severe Mental Illness is a report written by a collaboration of Murder Victims’ Families for Human Rights (MVFHR) and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). The report was developed from the "Prevention, Not Execution" project. The project [...]
Americans have become increasingly troubled by the profound flaws in our capital punishment system, including its astonishing error rate and its racial and socioeconomic biases. They are less aware of its disturbing geographical biases.
The United States does not practice capital punishment. Isolated parts of it do.
The death penalty is primarily a [...]
Featured today in Sojouners magazine is an op-ed by Richard A. Viguerie, the man whom The Nation once called "one of the creators of the modern conservative movement." In it, Viguerie argues that his Christian faith and conservative values compel him to oppose the death penalty:
I’m a Catholic. Because of [...]
(Cross-posted on Daily Kos and Calitics.)
Today, for the first time ever, Californians will have the chance to weigh in on the state’s broken death penalty system. Victims, clergy, legal experts, wrongfully convicted individuals and concerned taxpayers from around the state will converge on Sacramento for a public hearing of the Department [...]
(Originally posted on Daily Kos.)
As soon as the St. Louis police officers knocked on the door of the home of Vera Thomas in April 1991, a parade of horribles began which culminated with her son, Reggie Clemons, being convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The case is infected by police brutality, prosecutorial misconduct, [...]
A series of common sense, waste-cutting proposals would address two of California’s biggest problems: our overburdened, dysfunctional corrections system, and the ever increasing multibillion dollar deficit. Implementing these proposals would save the state $7.5 billion in five years and improve public safety, so what are we waiting for?
Over the last [...]
On Wednesday, the United Nations independent expert on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Special Rapporteur Philip Alston, made a presentation before the Human Rights Council on U.S. policies and practices that have led to unlawful deaths and other abuses. Alston presented his findings based on a fact-finding mission to the United States in June 2008, [...]