Category: Emma done

The stakes couldn’t be higher

The stakes couldn’t be higher for 2017. Our work together next year will help shape the future of our country.

For too long, the national conversation about violence has been all about punishment, and with devastating consequences: 2.3 million people in prison. More than 2,900 facing execution. Communities of color traumatized. Victims of violence left without care.

This has to change. You’ve known that for years.

Today, thanks to you and to our partners, we’re at a tipping point for the issues we’ve been fighting for together: Ending the death penalty. Bringing racial equity to services for crime survivors. Engaging a new national conversation about justice.

Help tip the scales of justice with a tax-deductible donation to EJUSA. A generous donor just pledged to match the first $20,000 in gifts until December 31!

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Death Penalty in Decline, an Update from CCATDP

The United States is slowly turning against the death penalty. Its end seems inevitable, but unfortunately, there were a few setbacks this year. Ballot initiatives in California and Nebraska fell short of passing. Despite this, I feel incredibly encouraged for several reasons.

A recent Pew poll showed that support for the death penalty is at the lowest point since 1972, and there was a seven-point drop in support in just the last year. There are other metrics that portend the death penalty’s eventual demise. So far this year, 18 people have been executed nationwide, and if this trend continues, then 2016 will have the fewest executions since 1991. Death sentences are also in decline. Last year, there were less than 50 across the country, which was the fewest since 1976. While there is still considerable work to do, the great news is polls are demonstrating that opposition to the death penalty is growing and states are slowly abandoning its use. Continue reading

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Funding available for groups serving child sexual abuse survivors in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has opened an application process for organizations to apply for funds (pdf) through the Federal Victims Of Crime Act (VOCA). If you are an organization in Pennsylvania that works with adult and child survivors of child sexual abuse, you may be eligible to apply through this RFP process. The maximum grant award is $50,000.

Through our VOCA Funding Toolkit, and assistance from our Grassroots Capacity Building Specialist, EJUSA can help groups determine if they are eligible, answer questions about the process, and provide some support for your group’s application. Please contact Latrina Kelly-James at latrinakj@ejusa.org or (203) 823-5826 or download the toolkit here.

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Filed under: Emma done

last night

Last night was emotional and surprising.

Many in America are mourning today; some are deeply afraid for their lives or their loved ones. Others are feeling heard in their suffering for the first time.

Finding common ground across those kinds of differences isn’t easy, but it has fundamentally transformed me personally, and EJUSA’s work, over the last decade. On our largest and oldest campaign, this bridge-building approach has put the end of the death penalty within our sights.

Still, last night, voters in Nebraska, California, and Oklahoma all passed referenda in favor of the death penalty. Those losses hit us hard. Those states have chosen a failed, broken policy when they had the chance to move towards a new dawn.

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Filed under: Emma done

Recommended this week

“Recommended this week” features highlights from the past week in news about the death penalty, crime survivors, and trauma-informed responses to crime.

Better by half, The Marshall Project
An interesting story from The Marshall Project about New York City: “New York City’s example shows that when the community and government work together, it is possible to have both half as much incarceration and twice as much safety.”

Killing Dylann Roof Wouldn’t Help Racial Injustice, Time
Next week, jury selection begins in Dylann Roof’s federal trial. Executing Roof will not rid us of the racism that fueled him and will not make the death penalty less racially biased.

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Filed under: Emma done

Recommended this week

“Recommended this week” features highlights from the past week in news about the death penalty, crime survivors, and trauma-informed responses to crime.

Three States to Watch if You Care About the Death Penalty, The Marshall Project
Voters in Oklahoma, Nebraska, and California will face death penalty questions at the polls. The Marshall Project looks at what’s on the ballot in each of the states and what is at stake.

Baltimore Is Attacking the Roots of Violence with Public Health Measures—and Saving Lives, Scientific America
Violence is contagious and can spread from person to person, just like a disease. The Baltimore City Health Department is bringing down violence in some of Baltimore’s highest violence neighborhoods using a public health approach.

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Death Penalty Support Plunges to 40-Year Low – an update from CCATDP

Florida’s death penalty has remained in the national spotlight as of late. In January, the Sunshine State’s capital sentencing scheme was ruled unconstitutional because it gave judges, rather than jurors, too much power in the death penalty sentencing process. As a result, Florida’s legislature passed a bill requiring at least a 10-2 jury vote in order to sentence someone to die, but this statute was quickly deemed unconstitutional by a Miami-Dade judge.

However, the courts didn’t settle the matter until recently when the decision was appealed to the state’s Supreme Court, which agreed that Florida’s sentencing statute was a constitutional violation. Until the legislature addresses this issue, Florida is effectively without a death penalty, which should be a welcome hiatus given the state’s poor record with capital punishment.

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Filed under: Emma done

Recommended this week

“Recommended this week” features highlights from the past week in news about the death penalty, crime survivors, and trauma-informed responses to crime.

Justices, give Duane Buck a second chance, CNN.com
Linda Geffin was the second chair prosecutor in Duane Buck’s case is now calling for a new sentencing in his case. She reflects on the racial bias that permeated Duane Buck’s case and our criminal justice system.

Being black shouldn’t mean a longer prison sentence, USA Today
The destructive myth of black dangerousness was heard in the highest court of the land yesterday – in a death penalty case out of Texas. Never has “broken beyond repair” been more apparent.

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Supreme Court hears death penalty racial bias case from Texas

Duane Buck

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the Texas death penalty case of Duane Buck. Buck was sentenced to death after his own lawyer called an “expert” who testified that Buck was more likely to be dangerous in the future because he is black. At this crucial moment, when our nation is confronting hard truths about race and the criminal justice system, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether this blatantly racist testimony will be allowed to stand or whether Buck must receive a new sentencing hearing, free of racial bias.

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Crime survivors and supporters demand change

National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims is an opportunity to invest in public health approaches to violence

EJUSA supports Mothers in Charge national action on Sept 22

Statement by Shari Silberstein, Executive Director

“Every year there are more than 14,000 people murdered in America. Countless grieving parents, brothers, sisters, children, and other loved ones are left behind to pick up the pieces of their lives. And young men of color are the most likely to be victims of this public health crisis.

“It’s time to commit to a new path forward. We need trauma-informed responses to violence that save lives, rebuild communities, and prevent future violence. We need to understand the pain in communities of color built up over generations of racism, violence, and poverty, and ensure that responses to violence help instead of harm. We need to stand up as a nation to honor those killed by taking care of those left behind.

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Filed under: Emma done