“Recommended this week” features highlights from the past week in news about the death penalty, crime survivors, and trauma-informed responses to crime.
Evangelical Leaders Call for Halt to Texas Execution Demand New Sentencing Hearing for Jeff Wood, The Gospel Herald
Evangelical Leaders Call for Halt to Texas Execution, Evangelicals for Social Action
Evangelicals urge halt to Texas execution, Baptist News Global
Evangelical leaders: Texas has ‘moral obligation’ to stop execution of death row prisoner, Christian Today
Several stories about the almost 50 Evangelical pastors who called on Texas Governor Greg Abbot and the Board of Paroles and Pardons to commute the death sentence of Jeffrey Wood. Wood is scheduled to be executed on August 23, even though he never killed anyone, had no previous criminal history, and suffers from borderline intellectual functioning and mental illness. Although Wood was involved in a robbery, he didn’t plan to kill anyone and wasn’t even inside the gas station when the victim, Kris Keeran, was shot. He was sitting in a truck outside.
Even violent crime victims say our prisons are making crime worse, The Washington Post
According to a new report from the Alliance for Safety & Justice,“A majority of crime victims prefer investments in treatment & prevention over prison spending.” The report, “Crime Survivors Speak,” includes the first national survey of crime victims’ views on safety and justice policy. It reveals their preference for prevention, health, and rehabilitation over more spending on prisons and jails.
Conservative Latino religious groups make big push to end death penalty, Fox News Latino
A look at the growing movement of Latinos, evangelicals, and Latino evangelicals who oppose the death penalty. “Given studies on how the death penalty is meted out, particularly for people of color, if it’s not a level playing field, we need to speak out,” according to Reverend Gabriel Salguero of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition.
The New Conservative Push To End Capital Punishment, Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting
Bills to abolish the death penalty are becoming more common. Helping lead the push: conservative Republicans who say fiscal and pro-life values trump an eye-for-an-eye view of execution.
Who is Texas executing now? A man with no direct involvement in the murder for which he’ll be put to death, The Los Angeles Times
The newspaper condemns the “unconscionable and likely unconstitutionally” pending execution of Jeffrey Wood in Texas.
