President Joe Biden must make many decisions as he prepares to leave office in January. Among them is one that, while weighty, is straightforward and entirely within his power to make. The president can — and must — commute all…
Multiple groups urge Biden to commute death sentences of all 40 inmates on federal Death Row
Death penalty opponents across the nation are imploring President Joe Biden to commute the death sentences of 40 inmates currently serving on federal Death Row. More than a dozen groups representing Black clergy, Catholic anti-death-penalty activists, civil rights attorneys, pro-life…
Is Trump innocent?
Of all the loud voices of protests from across the country about the unfairness of the legal system toward the former president, I have not heard a single one of them declare he is innocent. Thus, I am led to…
Louisiana Jews form alliance to oppose gassing as means of execution
Louisiana’s Jewish community has formed an alliance committed to protesting and ultimately repealing a new state law allowing the use of gas as an execution method. The Jews Against Gassing Coalition was formed after the March 5 passage of House…
Religious leaders decry Louisiana plan to bring back electric chair and gassing for death penalty cases
A cross section of religious leaders gathered on the steps of the Louisiana Capitol recently to offer prayers and protest over the state’s plan to add the electric chair and poison gas to its lineup of execution methods. The representatives…
Condemning Alabama for using an experimental drug to execute a prisoner misses the point, author warns
Justified condemnations of Alabama’s plan to execute a convicted killer Jan. 25 using an untested gas serve as a distraction from the ultimate need to end the death penalty altogether, Katie Owens-Murphy said during a webinar hosted by Equal Justice…
Testimony of exonerees is best way to sway opinion on death penalty
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…