Looking back on 2019 reminds me of what an incredible experience it is to do our work. Reflecting also confirms how 2019 set us up for yet another decade of monumental change. I am so grateful for our team, board, partners, and supporters like you because you all make the work successful. And I’m excited…
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Each December, the team at the Death Penalty Information Center provides an enormous and essential service to justice reform when it releases its annual year-end report. The report tells the comprehensive story—in statistics and graphics, in narrative, and in expert analysis—of the death penalty in the U.S. for the previous 12 months. The reports of…
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EJUSA launched the John J. Gibbons Fund in 2016 to honor the life and legacy of Judge John J. Gibbons, former Chief Judge of the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Gibbons was a tireless advocate who used his position to protect and expand civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights in our nation….
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Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery has requested nine new execution dates for Tennessee death row inmates. This request is totally out of step with national trends on the death penalty. Twenty-one states no longer have the death penalty while four additional states have enacted moratoria halting executions. Public support, executions, and death sentences remain at near forty…
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It is with a broken heart that I’m writing to share the news that one of our founding board members, Jonathan E. Gradess, passed away last week. I met Jonathan 15 years ago, on the eve of the nation’s first successful death penalty abolition campaign. The courts had just thrown out New York’s death penalty…
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In September, Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCATDP) hosted its first national gathering for staff, supporters, and volunteers from across the country. We converged on New Orleans and spent two thrilling days talking about our numerous recent victories and strategizing for future campaigns. The past year has been amazing. Conservatives were the deciding votes…
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For generations, communities of color have experienced deep mistrust of police, resulting from years of institutional racism and violence. Only after the 2014 police murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Ezell Ford, all within a month of each other, did discussions of police violence and accountability become a part of the larger national conscience….
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Over 500 police and community members have completed in EJUSA’s Trauma to Trust program. Click here to learn more and participate. Summer sunlight poured through tall windows into the community room of a historic Newark building this past June. Long tables formed something like a horseshoe, with chairs lining the outer perimeter. A large projection…
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This fall, Equal Justice USA is continuing to lead an effort to facilitate healing and build trust between the community and police with a goal of better responses to trauma in the wake of violence. A team of facilitators will be leading trainings on trauma-informed responses to violence with the Newark Police Department and Newark…
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Statement by Shari Silberstein, Executive Director of Equal Justice USA: “Despite substantial evidence that the death penalty is overrun by racism and the process preys upon the poor and those struggling with trauma, the federal government has made a choice to begin executing again. Executions and death sentences are at historic lows because, as a…
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