Stephen F. Rohde is a constitutional lawyer, lecturer, writer and political activist. He is chair emeritus of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California; immediate past chair of Bend the Arc, a Jewish Partnership for Justice; past president of the Beverly Hills Bar Association; and is a founder of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace.
Robert Sanger has been a criminal defense lawyer in Santa Barbara for over 40 years and has defended people charged with capital offenses since the reinstitution of the death penalty in California. He is Past President of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (CACJ), a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and teaches law school classes in Forensic Science.
Sarah Sanger is an associate attorney with Sanger Swysen & Dunkle in Santa Barbara. She works on criminal defense matters in both the state and federal courts primarily involving capital cases. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law where she did graduate work in philosophy while obtaining her law degree. She clerked for the Office of the State Public Defender in Oakland, working on capital cases, and for the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office.
Timberman founded her Sony Pictures Television-based production company, 25C Productions (now Timberman/Beverly Productions) in 2003. Timberman (along with partner Carl Beverly) is currently in production on the A&E drama pilot DANNY FRICKE, written by Cynthia Cidre and directed by Michael Dinner. Timberman/Beverly recently produced the Fox comedy pilot “Hackett,” starring Donal Logue and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. In 2006, 25C and Sony produced the critically acclaimed NBC series, “Kidnapped.”
Toni Trucks comes from a strong and varied acting background with roots in the theatre. Toni spent her early career in New York before making
Beth Webb is a member of California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and a tireless advocate of abolition. In 2011, her sister, Laura, was killed, and her mother, Hattie, was wounded in the Salon Meritage Shooting in Seal Beach, CA. Beth worked with the other victims’ family members to oppose the death penalty in the resulting trial, based on her opposition to the practice and on the fact that it would cause the families to endure a painful and unending litigation process. Beth even spoke to the Orange County District Attorney to let him know her opposition to the death penalty, although the DA rebuffed her while still continuing to tout his “victims’ rights” bona fides. In 2017, the defendant was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole because the judge presiding over the case found that the corruption of the OCDA’s office and OC Sheriff’s Department had been so pervasive that he could not guarantee a Constitutional sentencing hearing. In 2016, Beth was one of the most forceful campaigners for Prop. 62, a statewide ballot initiative that nearly abolished the death penalty in California. She continues to be active in the fight to end the death penalty and to challenge corrupt prosecutors at the local level.”
Most children dream of a profession. Few, unlike Charles Windon, however, actually realize that dream. On a routine day like any other, while in the
Richard Wollack is a real estate investment manager for institutional and individual investors for over 35 years. He also founded Premier Pacific Vineyards, the largest developer of high-end vineyards in California and owns two wine brands: Expression and Tetra.
2023 was the ninth consecutive year that fewer than 30 people were executed in the United States, and fewer than 50 people were sentenced to death, the Death Penalty Information Center states in its 2023 annual report. Twenty-nine states — the majority — have either “abolished the death penalty or paused them by executive action,” according to DPIC. And only five states, Alabama, Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas, conducted executions,
Earlier this week, the Alabama Department of Corrections released additional details about its plan to become the first state to use nitrogen hypoxia in state killings. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled in October that the state attorney general could proceed with his plan to execute Kenneth Eugene Smith with nitrogen gas in a 6-2 decision by the all-Republican court. In their post in Substack, Lauren Gill and Dan Moritz-Rabson report
Alabama executed Casey McWhorter earlier this month. He was convicted and sentenced to die in 1994 for the robbery and murder of Edward Lee Williams in 1993. McWhorter was one of three teenagers, one of whom was Williams’ son, charged with the murder. But he was the only one sentenced to death because he was the only defendant who was 18 at the time of the crime. The other two,
“Whether you support capital punishment or oppose it, one thing is clear. Oklahoma’s system is so fundamentally flawed that we cannot know that someone who has been condemned to death actually deserves the ultimate penalty,” writes former U.S. Judge Andy Lester in a letter to the editor in nondoc.com. Lester was one of three co-chairs of the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission that, in 2017, called for a moratorium on
In South Carolina, executions are on hold until at least February, when the supreme court will hold a hearing over a lawsuit filed by four people on death row who argue that electrocution and firing squad are unconstitutional methods of execution, WIS10 reports. The state’s default method of execution is the electric chair but offers the option of a firing squad or lethal injection if the drugs are available, according
Late last month, Pennsylvania House Bill 999 to repeal the death penalty passed out of the Judiciary Committee on a vote of 15-10. It was supported by all the Democrats and one of the Republicans on the committee. Democratic state Rep. Chris Rabb sponsored the bill, arguing that the repeal is imperative for many reasons, including its astronomical cost and the high risk of executing an innocent person. City &
Texas killed 53-year-old Brent Ray Brewer by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville on November 9. And one week later, on November 16, the state executed David Renteria. The state killed a total of eight men this year. It has executed 579 individuals since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Brewer was executed for the April 1990 death
Texas killed 53-year-old Brent Ray Brewer by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville last week. Brewer was executed for the April 1990 death of 66-year-old Robert Laminack during a robbery. He was 19 at the time. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Brewer’s 1991 death sentence, finding that finding that the court failed to give his jurors the instructions that they could consider mitigating factors in his
Gallup released a poll this week that found that for the first time since 2000 when it began asking whether respondents believed the death penalty was fairly applied, 50% said it was not fairly imposed, while 47% believe it is. “This represents a five-point increase in the percentage who think it is applied unfairly since the prior measurement in 2018,” Gallup stated. The pollsters noted that the number of those
