Florida’s death penalty system has come to epitomize the typical big, dysfunctional government program. It is marred by failures, including wrongful convictions and rising costs. It fails to adequately protect society, often harms murder victims’ families, and the Sunshine State’s capital sentencing scheme has been declared unconstitutional twice in just the last year. As a…
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Last week, the Gibbons Law firm in Newark, NJ hosted a reception to launch the Judge John J. Gibbons Fund for Justice at EJUSA. More than eighty people gathered to celebrate the Judge’s extraordinary legacy of justice and the launch of the fund at EJUSA in his honor. Guests included family, friends, former law clerks,…
Read MoreCalifornia has opened an application process for organizations to apply for funds through the Federal Victims Of Crime Act (VOCA). If you are a Native American tribe, tribal nonprofit/community-based organization, or tribal consortium operating within a Tribal Court system in California, you may be eligible to apply through this RFP process. The maximum grant award is $200,000….
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Last week, the Equal Justice Initiative and Google launched Lynching in America, a powerful collection of personal stories and extensive research on more than 4,000 lynchings of black Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries. I was reading through the heartbreaking site on Friday when a news alert came on my phone: the police officer who…
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The Honorable John J. Gibbons, standard-bearer of the Gibbons law firm and a giant in the New Jersey legal community for five decades, will be honored on June 21st at a reception to mark the launch of a new fund in his name. The Judge John J. Gibbons Fund for Justice at Equal Justice USA…
Read MoreReimagining Justice This Month highlights stories about effective responses to violence – responses that disrupt cycles of violence, heal trauma, and address structural racism. Training Day, Trumplandia While there are many efforts to train police officers, trainings often fail to deeply connect police to the community and their needs. EJUSA’s Police/Community Initiative is highlighted in…
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The deep divide between police and communities of color in the United States can often seem intractable. But EJUSA has a long history of bridging divides that once seemed insurmountable. Our newest project to do this is the Police/Community Initiative on Trauma-Informed Responses to Violence, piloted last year in Newark, NJ. The project was profiled…
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The nation’s eyes were on Arkansas as it executed four people in 10 days in April, including holding the nation’s first double execution in almost two decades. The schedule drew national outrage, including 250,000 petition signatures delivered to the governor, intervention by victims’ family members, and celebrity involvement. Much of the attention has been on…
Read MoreIn the past month, we’ve been confronted with our death penalty system’s dangers and flaws again. Rodricus Crawford was released from Louisiana’s death row in April and Ralph Daniel Wright Jr. from Florida’s death row just days ago because they had both been wrongly convicted and sentenced to die. Regrettably, this isn’t a rare occurrence….
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