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In brief: December 2018

In Texas, three men were executed in the space of four weeks: 43-year-old Alvin Braziel was executed on Tuesday for the 1993 murder of Douglas

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Midterms 2018

There was much to celebrate after this week’s election, especially the strides made in criminal justice reform. In Louisiana, Amendment 2 passed easily, which means

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Voices: Rev. Joseph Ingle

Tennessee’s nine-year break in executions ended in August when the state killed Billy Ray Irick by lethal injection. Last week, Edmund Zagorski was executed by

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Voices: Ashley Cook

A year ago, wrongful convictions and the death penalty were not something that crossed my mind very often. As a Japanese major, I generally stay in the same academic “bubble” of Japa-nese courses, venturing out only to learn the very basics of other academia through GE courses. Some of the classes I have taken have made a lasting impact on me as a student; but most of these classes come

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Oklahoma executes John Grant

“I want to share with you my absolute conviction that the death penalty must disappear from the entire world as it is a shame for humanity. The death penalty does not protect society; it dishonors it,” said Robert Badinter, the French justice minister who led the successful effort to abolish capital punishment in France 40 years ago, at an event marking the anniversary last month. In the U.S., where there

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A “phenomenal legal battle in Japan”

In Japan, death row prisoners wake up every day wondering if it will be their last. Execution dates are not set in Japan so the prisoners don’t know when they will be executed until right before they are hanged (the only method Japan uses).

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While we’re on the subject…

In its analysis of the President Biden-appointed US Supreme Court Reform Commission’s draft recommendations, Balls and Strikes says the “commission gave the death penalty a pass.” Lisa Needham writes that “The notion that the Court might be the final link in a chain of decisions that results in an innocent person’s death does not seem to cause much consternation for the commission.” She argues that “a series of both-sides takes

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Watch Now: How We Decrease Death Row & Abolish the Death Penalty

How we Decrease Death Row & Abolish the Death Penalty: A Conversation with the California Committee on Revision of the Penal Code Watch the recap on-demand below Special thanks to chair of the Committee Michael Romano, staff attorney Rick Owen, and consultant to the Committee Natasha Minsker for discussing how they arrived at the decision and the strategies for reaching that goal. And thank you to our cosponsors, who share

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