Death row exonerees represent some of the most powerful arguments against capital punishment, especially for legislators and others who have no idea how the U.S. death penalty system works, Death Row survivor Herman Lindsey said. “You’re able to reach people…
‘If incarceration is supposed to make us safe, we should be the safest place on earth’
Racial disparities continue to plague Black Americans in part because of the persistent perception that they are, by nature, threats to law and order, said Jamila Hodge, CEO of Equal Justice USA. “We have won many legal battles — the…
Evangelical leaders condemn DeSantis for politicizing state executions
The presidential aspirations of Gov. Ron DeSantis have exacerbated the challenges facing Florida’s Death Row inmates and the activists trying to help them, said one of the state’s leading opponents of capital punishment. “Florida is a very dark place for…
He Called Me Sister — an unlikely story of an inmate, a family and grace on Death Row
Suzanne and Alan Robertson and their daughters found grace, compassion and hope in one of the last places most people would think to look: Death Row. Suzanne Craig Robertson recounts their discovery — and how it touched their lives —…
Opposition to death penalty gaining steam through broad coalition
America’s anti-capital punishment movement is growing in political, religious and racial diversity even as the nation continues to fracture along partisan lines, a leading death penalty abolitionist said. “It does feel hopeful to work on this issue because we work…
What happens when Tom Ascol finds Ted Cruz to be too liberal and quotes Leviticus 20:13?
When a prominent Southern Baptist pastor quotes Levitical law prescribing the death penalty for participants in gay sex, should that be interpreted as calling for capital punishment for gay people in America today? Apparently not, according to Florida pastor Tom…
Momentum is building to stop an execution in Oklahoma
Legislative and religious momentum is building to spare the life of a condemned Oklahoma inmate and to seek a moratorium — if not an outright ban — on the state’s capital punishment system. Lawmakers and a former parole and pardons…
Capital punishment continues America’s history of lynching, panelists say
Capital punishment in the United States continues a system of lynchings used to terrorize and subjugate Black people in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a panel of death penalty abolitionists said during a recent webinar. “The mistake people sometimes…
Her ‘Damascus Road’ led to campaign against the death penalty
Joia Erin Thornton underwent a self-described “Damascus Road experience” that altered her career track from magazine writing to criminal justice policy work, community organizing and anti-death penalty advocacy. “I was living and working in New York, and I had this…