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…
This morning, religious leaders from Hillsborough and Pinellas counties in Florida held a press conference to react to a report from Harvard’s Fair Punishment Project, branding the counties as “outliers” due to their overuse of the death penalty. Press conference participants released a letter to the State Attorney’s Office signed by more than 75 local religious leaders…
Harvard’s Fair Punishment Project released the second installment of a report showing the dysfunction in the use of the death penalty in the only 16 counties that continue to use it with any regularity. “Too Broken to Fix: An In-depth Look at America’s Outlier Death Penalty Counties,” looks at the 16 “outlier counties” – of 3,143 counties…
Latinos are disproportionately affected by the criminal justice and face a higher risk of wrongful conviction than their white counterparts. Increasingly, Latinos in the United States are skeptical of the death penalty, and community leaders and national organizations are calling for its end. We are excited to publish a new resource with detailed information about…
Our friends at the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty (KCADP) have an amazing event planned for Saturday, October 22, and we wanted to make sure you heard about it! Join KCADP for their annual Abolition Conference at 1pm on 10/22 at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church in Olathe. You’ll hear Kansans speak about the social,…
“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…
To commemorate World Day Against the Death Penalty, YOU are invited to the world premiere of a new film about death row exonerees from the U.S, “The Gathering.” The Delegation of the European Union and the Embassy of France will host this “EU Rendez-Vous” on Monday, October 17 at the French Embassy in Washington, DC. RSVP…
In a new short film from the #DeathPenaltyFail campaign, Anthony Ray Hinton tells the firsthand story of spending 30 years on Alabama’s death row for a crime he didn’t commit. Watch the film today and then support the Thunderclap to make sure more and more people see and hear Hinton’s powerful story.
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…
Mass shootings. Black men killed by police. Shootings of police officers. These incidents seem to keep coming, highlighting deep tensions, fear, and pain across our nation. Despite these and so many other tragedies, hope abounds in communities large and small. Join EJUSA in building a movement to transform the justice system with a gift of…