My first year and a half at EJUSA has been incredibly rewarding. I’m so grateful to be part of a team of such caring people who fight so hard and so courageously to advance justice in our nation. And I’m so grateful to you, our true partners in justice, who fight right alongside us and…
Working for justice is hard. Sometimes it feels overwhelming. You know that because you’ve been in the trenches with EJUSA for more than two decades. But we always go on because we feel strongly and passionately that we must change the conversation about violence – its causes and solutions. And today, we are at an…
Nora McDonnell, EJUSA Associate Board I joined EJUSA’s Advisory Board in August, and this past Thursday I attended my first Holiday Party, an annual Advisory Board tradition to build support for EJUSA’s work. While the last few months have put forth challenges as we process the difficult results of a tumultuous election cycle, there is…
The trauma of police-involved shootings and slain police officers has spurred national and local dialogue, including about racial justice, historical trauma, public safety, police accountability, and much more. This fall, EJUSA’s Trauma Advocacy Program spearheaded a new project to help facilitate even more dialogue – and develop solutions – in Newark, New Jersey. “Trauma-Informed Responses…
Equal Justice USA is leading an effort to increase the capacity for police and the community to respond to trauma in the wake of violence. This fall, a team of facilitators will be leading trainings on trauma-informed responses to violence with the Newark Police Department and Newark community members: “Trauma Informed Responses to Violence: Newark…
Recently I spoke to Wanda Moore, an Assistant Attorney General in New Jersey and the Director of the Office of Community Justice, about her work to reduce trauma and violence through positive youth development programs, community-based crime prevention strategies, and system wide change. Ms. Moore leads cutting-edge, place-based solutions work in several cities in New…
EJUSA recently secured its first-ever partnership with a health foundation – signaling a new leap forward in efforts to link public health and criminal justice. There has been a lot of national discussion about the need to treat violence as a public health issue, or to use a public health approach to justice reform. But…
Last month, we introduced you to the expansion of our work to build a better justice system, including two new staff. I had the opportunity to sit down with one of them, Fatimah Loren Muhammad, and learn about her first few weeks, what a “trauma-informed” justice system means, and her vision for this first year….
New Jersey Sen. Robert Martin is mindful of history. “One hundred years from now I hope we will be remembered for having had the courage to be leaders in advancing this cause for a more civilized society,” said Martin, R-Morris. The cause: Abolishing the death penalty. The New Jersey is poised to give final legislative approval on Thursday to abolishing the death penalty, becoming the first state to do so since 1965 when Iowa and West Virginia abolished it. The state Senate approved the bill Monday; The Assembly will vote Thursday and is expected to pass it. Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine has said he’ll sign the bill. Death penalty foes are hoping New Jersey will inspire others to follow suit. “I hope New Jersey will give encouragement to other legislators and public officials to have the courage to face this issue squarely,” said Joshua Rubenstein, Amnesty International USA’s northeast director. Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said New Jersey reflects a growing national trend against the death penalty, with executions in decline and more states weighing abolition. “We have learned a lot about the death penalty in the past 30 years,” Rust-Tierney said. “When you look closely at the facts, it just doesn’t add up to sound policy.” She noted New Jersey’s votes come a week after Michael L. McCormick of Tennessee was acquitted in a retrial after spending 15 years on death row. The nation has executed 1,099 people since the U.S. Supreme Court reauthorized the death penalty in 1976. In 1999, 98 people were executed, the most since 1976; last year 53 people were executed, the lowest since 1996. “The United States is one of the few countries in the world that has a death penalty, keeping company with the likes of Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya and Afghanistan,” said New Jersey Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Union. Other states have considered abolishing the death penalty, but none have advanced as far as New Jersey. According to the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center, 37 states have the death penalty. “Some people deserve to die and we have an obligation to execute them,” said New York Law School professor Robert Blecker, a national death penalty supporter who has been lobbying New Jersey lawmakers against abolition. But death penalty foes point to recent success: _ The Massachusetts House in November rejected reinstating the death penalty. _ A 2004 appeals court decision found New York’s death penalty law unconstitutional. _ The American Bar Association recently said problems in state death penalty procedures justify a nationwide execution freeze. _ Tennessee lawmakers are analyzing that state’s death penalty. _ Then-Gov. George Ryan of Illinois declared a moratorium on executions in 2000 after 13 people who were found to have been wrongfully convicted were released.
“We in the Garden State are on the verge of a series of victories. Our bill to convene a Capital Punishment Study Commission to conduct one of the country’s most comprehensive death penalty reviews is on the verge of passing. Thanks to a recent Federal Circuit Court decision that delayed executions in New Jersey for…