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 | Author of CA Death Penalty Law Has Change of Heart
by Stefanie
July 21st, 2011
Los Angeles Times columnist and radio personality, Patt Morrison, interviewed Donald Heller, author of California's current death penalty statute, on July 16th about why he no longer supports capital punishment. In the interview Heller cites "the enormous toll it [takes] on people involved" including defense lawyers, judges and other players in the system, the high cost and the risk of executing the innocent. |
 | Running for Justice, Not From It!
by Emily Hammagren, Guest Blogger
June 30th, 2011
I'm training to run a marathon (26.2 miles) in Walla Walla, Washington on October 16th, 2011 to raise funds for the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (WCADP) and increase awareness of the damage that the death penalty does to our society. While the Walla Walla run is small compared to those in big cities, the location is significant in that Walla Walla is the home of Washington's death row for men and the state's execution chamber. |
| Report Makes Important Recommendations on Fixing a "Broken System"
by James Brockway, Guest Blogger
February 23rd, 2011
This month marked the release of an important new report, Smart on Crime: Recommendations for the Administration and Congress. The report includes a thoroughly researched inquiry into the death penalty and provides insight into how to remedy the lack of constitutional safeguards which currently characterize the system. The issues highlighted include the lack of adequate review of capital convictions, the significant racial bias in their application, the unfair targeting of the mentally ill as capital defendants, and the woefully insufficient legal representation of the indigent defendants who make up the lion’s share of individuals we execute. |
| Book Review:
Mother California: A Story of Redemption Behind Bars
by Cheryl Cotterill, Guest Blogger
December 14th, 2010
A child of “Mother California,” author Kenneth E. Hartman grew up in the State’s juvenile system where he became addicted to violence and the power he derived from instilling fear in others. By the age of 19, Hartman says he “had the dead eyes familiar to prison guards and combat veterans.” But Hartman’s violent rampage comes to an end in February 1980 when he beats a homeless man to death for no reason. Hartman is found guilty of the murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. |
| Death Penalty Usage Maps Show Infrequent Use of the Sentence
by Stefanie
October 22nd, 2010
This remarkable sideshow of maps (below), created by Robert Smith (Staff Attorney at Capital Appeals Project / Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice) for a recent blog post he wrote for Second Class Justice, reveals that the death penalty is slowly fading away in the United States. |
 | Cut This: The Death Penalty Video
by Stefanie
June 29th, 2010
We know that advocates and community members from across the state are fighting to ensure that the vital social services that make the safety net for California's most vulnerable populations aren't slashed. We're here with a small piece of the solution. Need to cut something? Cut this: the death penalty. |
 | NH Supreme Court Justice on the Death Penalty
by The Hon. Joseph P. Nadeau, Retired Justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire
June 25th, 2010
It has been my good fortune to serve as a judge in New Hampshire for thirty-seven years. For thirteen of those years I was presiding justice of the Durham District Court. I served as a justice of the Superior Court for eighteen years, nine of which I spent as chief justice. And I sat on the Supreme Court for six years before retiring in December of 2005. I am proud of our judicial system and the effort of judges in all our courts to treat people fairly and equally, and to protect their individual rights. |
 | From San Quentin to Auschwitz
by Lance Lindsey
June 8th, 2010
The highly publicized Chessman and Eichmann dramas revealed the horrors of gas-chamber executions and served to strip away the masks of kindness and indifference from capital punishment in general. |
| Readers react to the Democratic Party's call for ending CA's death penalty
by Aarti
May 24th, 2010
Democrats will "replace the death penalty with a term of permanent incarceration, which will serve to protect the public, provide swift and certain justice for victims' families, and save the state an estimated $1 billion over the next five years."
Readers react in the San Francisco Chronicle |
 | Wilbert Rideau on NPR's Fresh Air; will be in CA next month
by Stefanie
April 27th, 2010
Wilbert Rideau was sentenced to death in Louisiana at the age of 19. After a decade on death row, his sentence was changed and he was transferred to the notorious Angola prison. He has a new book out titled "In the Place of Justice: A Story of Punishment and Deliverance." |
| Bud Welch on the Rachel Maddow Show
by Stefanie
April 20th, 2010
Bud Welch was interviewed on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show." This month marks the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City federal building bombing. Bud's daughter was among the 167 men, women and children killed. Bud Welch will share his personal story and mention his death penalty abolition work. |
| Johnny Depp advocates for the West Memphis 3
by Stefanie
March 1st, 2010
On Saturday, 48 Hours Mystery featured a program on the West Memphis 3: Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley are serving prison terms in Arkansas for murders they most likely did not commit. Echols is on death row. |
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