“Recommended this week” features highlights from the past week in news about the death penalty, crime survivors, and trauma-informed responses to crime.
Are Evangelicals Ditching the Death Penalty?, The Marshall Project
Another sign of how the U.S. is changing on the death penalty: Evangelical Christians are turning against it. Heather Beaudoin, our Director of Evangelical Outreach quoted in this article that looks at the demographic’s growing concerns over the ultimate punishment.
There’s trauma on both sides of the police-community relationship, The Washington Post
“African American and Latino children manifesting symptoms of stress and trauma akin to those who have lived in war zones. And many who patrol those communities show the same signs of stress and trauma… [T]hey’re supposed to serve share the same space, necessarily interact and can be deeply, sometimes tragically affected by each other.”
State Rep. Leach Tries to Stop Jeff Wood Execution, The Texas Tribune
This conservative Texas lawmaker has become a crusader in the effort to stop next week’s execution of Jeff Wood.
Conservative case against death penalty, Lincoln Journal Star
The Journal Star‘s editorial board has long been in support of death penalty repeal, and they have written over a dozen editorials outlining why. This one, in response to a new first-of-its-kind study about the costs of the Nebraska death penalty, is perhaps its best, reminding fiscal conservatives that the now-proven costs associated with the death penalty is just another reason to get rid of it.
AG won’t appeal Delaware death penalty ruling, The Delaware News Journal
The Attorney General announces he will not appeal the ruling by the State Supreme Court that threw out Delaware’s death penalty statute. There is currently no death penalty in the state. In order to bring it back, Delaware legislators would have to “fix” the law, which would be quite an uphill battle with the number of people in Delaware who know the death penalty is broken beyond repair.
What is the Impact of the Delaware Supreme Court’s Declaration that Its Death Penalty is Unconstitutional?, The Death Penalty Information Center
After the DE Supreme Court declared that state’s death penalty statute unconstitutional, only two states — FL and AL — still permit non-unanimous death penalty recommendations by juries. Only Alabama still permits judicial overrides of life recommendations by juries. The Delaware decision intensifies the national spotlight on these outlier practices, which produced MORE THAN 25% of all death sentences in the United States last year. Read this analysis by DPIC Executive Director Robert Dunham of the impact of the Delaware Supreme Court decision.
