While we’re on the subject . . .
February 9, 2018
In the March issue of Reason, reporter C.J. Ciaramella writes of how state officials have decided the “black hood of anonymity also covers the pharmacies
In the March issue of Reason, reporter C.J. Ciaramella writes of how state officials have decided the “black hood of anonymity also covers the pharmacies
Nicola White is a London-based artist whose work is fashioned from the fragments of wood, glass, pottery, and other artifacts she finds on the banks
Bethany Webb, whose sister was killed and mother wounded in a mass shooting in Seal Beach, California in 2011, has not given up her crusade
Malcolm Alexander was convicted in New Orleans in 1980 of a rape in a case where the only evidence against him was the eyewitness identification
On February 10, from 2-3:30 p.m., in San Francisco, we are co-sponsoring with the Justice Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America, San Francisco chapter,
This Friday, January 26, is a day of meditation, prayer and action for San Quentin death row prisoner Jarvis Masters, who was wrongfully convicted of
It’s easy to forget that California is a state with the death penalty on its books, and it’s not hard to see why. The state
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court sent the case of Keith Tharpe, who was sentenced to death in 1991 in Georgia, to a lower court
Doyle Lee Hamm has been on Alabama’s death row for 30 years. He is 60 years old, and is terminally ill with cranial and lymphatic
Angela Corey, the Florida State Attorney for the Fourth Judicial Circuit, whose jurisdiction included Duval County, which had the highest number of death sentences per capita in the nation, lost her reelection bid in the Republican primary late last month. Corey, whom the Nation suggested could be “the cruelest prosecutor in America,” was trounced by Melissa Nelson, a former prosecutor, 64 percent to 26 percent. Corey is probably best known
“I described to the jury how I had to tell my six-year old daughter that she would never see her daddy again. I told them about her putting a flower on the coffin, hugging his coffin. I pulled no punches, let me tell you. I made that jury understand how much pain I was in, how much pain my family was in. I was very persuasive.”
A man who was wrongfully convicted of murder in New Orleans, and served 18 years, 14 on death row, in Angola State Prison before being freed, filed a petition earlier this month asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate what he describes as “a disturbing pattern of lawlessness, corruption and prosecutorial misconduct by the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office.” John Thompson is asking the department’s Civil Rights Division to
Last week, the Delaware Supreme Court issued an order declaring that the state’s death penalty law was unconstitutional. This makes Delaware the 20th state (plus the District of Columbia) to ban the death penalty, and the eighth state to end the death penalty in the last nine years. This decision also raises constitutional questions about the death penalty in California and other states. In a 148-page opinion, the court said
“If putting him to death would bring my mama back, I’d want him dead. But that won’t happen, so what’s the point of killing him? I’m just trying to do the best I can and honor the memory of my mama. I believe in my heart she wouldn’t want this boy put to death.”
In Utah, legislators are planning to introduce a bill that would “fast-track” the death penalty appeals process to compete with a bill calling for repeal of the death penalty. The repeal bill passed the Senate earlier this year but failed to make it to the House floor before the end of its session. KSL reports that state fiscal analysts estimated a capital murder trial costs $1.6 million more than a
Former President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter. California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. Former California Attorney General John Van de Kamp. Former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso. Don Heller, author of California’s Death Penalty Law. Ron Briggs, former El Dorado County Supervisor who led the campaign for California’s Death Penalty Law in 1978. Gil Garcetti, former Los Angeles County District Attorney. These are just a few of the leaders, lawmakers,
Quin Denvir, a long-time criminal defense attorney — with significant stints as the State Public Defender and the Federal Defender for the Eastern District of California — embodied the zealous advocate, representing countless criminal defendants with fierce determination and more than occasional brilliance. He and I were co-counsel for Tom Thompson, who was executed on July 14, 1998 –a case that was fraught with legal errors, arbitrary rulings and mind-blowing unfairness, with serious questions of Tom’s guilt remaining
“I have represented several death row inmates who were able to avoid execution, and I lost one, Tom Thompson. He was very likely innocent of capital murder, and his case has been chronicled by Judge Reinhardt as a miscarriage of justice.”