Tragedies and Gun Laws
Published November 06, 2009 @ 03:55PM PT
Two tragic, violent shooting sprees in two days. Even in a country as desensitized to violence as the U.S., the events of this week have been jarring. These tragedies should remind us why gun control laws are important and should be expanded.
First, I want to say that the victims of these horrible crimes -- and their families and communities -- are in my thoughts. I don't mean to dishonor the memories of the victims by turning my attention to gun control. Instead I hope we can take this moment to consider policies that will prevent crimes like these in the future.
Trimming the Budget, Skipping Death Sentences
Published November 06, 2009 @ 07:14AM PT
One county in Mississippi has announced that it won't be seeking the death penalty in upcoming cases because it just doesn't have the money. Slowing death sentences by any means is progress, but this story makes me wonder if prosecutors are cutting fair trials to save a few bucks.
The exorbitant cost of capital cases and executions has caught the attention of the public recently, with a report from the Death Penalty Information Center, an editorial from the New York Times and more columns and comments than I can count.
The cost argument is one I employ often when talking about why the death penalty should be abolished. But it gives me pause to see Hinds County, Mississippi, cut back on scientific experts, investigators and sentence mitigation reports that would be used in a death penalty case. Aren't these resources we as a society should be providing in life without parole cases, as well?
Innocent and Deported
Published November 05, 2009 @ 04:35PM PT
I've got bad news to share. I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the case of cousins Julio Maldonado and Denis Calderon. Unfortunately, I came to the story too late. The day after I wrote, Maldonado was deported to Peru -- a country he left when he was three. He doesn't speak Spanish and found housing with distant relatives. He's stuck in a foreign land because of an injustice that started when he was jumped 13 years ago.
The Philadelphia City Paper has the sad story of Maldonado and Calderon, who is still detained in the U.S. and scheduled to be deported next year. The injustices suffered by these men never seem to end.
The cousins say they were wrongfully convicted of murder aggravated assault for a 1996 fight. They say they were the victims of a hate crime. They were involved in a scuffle after a group of white men began yelling racial epithets on a Philadelphia street and attacked them. Even prosecutors agree that the white men started the scuffle. Maldonado and Calderon then grabbed a steering-wheel lock and a baseball bat -- they say to defend themselves -- and critically injured a man who prosecutors say was an innocent bystander a man who prosecutors say was an innocent bystander ended up in a coma (he may have gone into a coma because of a pre-existing blood clotting condition, more below). The man died two years later. The white men were never charged.
And now the prosecutor who convicted them -- Seth Williams -- has been elected as Philadelphia's next attorney general.
The Constitutional Right Not to Be Framed
Published November 04, 2009 @ 09:11AM PT
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments this morning on the limits of prosecutorial immunity, and in arguing for universal protection from lawsuits, the Iowa prosecutors involved didn't mince words. There is no freestanding constitutional "right not to be framed," they wrote.
The prosecutors in this case aren't alone in this stark -- and saddening -- view. They were joined by the Obama administration, 28 states and several prosecutors' professional organizations.
On one side of the case are two men who served 25 years in Iowa prisons for a murder evidence shows they likely didn't commit. On the other, prosecutors who allegedly fabricated evidence during the investigation of a murder and hid evidence of another suspect's guilt.
Shipping Prisoners Out of Sight
Published November 04, 2009 @ 06:46AM PT
More bad news from California's prisons: the state has inked a deal with the Corrections Corporation of America to ship another 2,336 to private facilities outside of the state.
California's overcrowded, dangerous prisons continue to serve up a windfall for companies like CCA while the state refuses to address the underlying problem and reduce incarceration rates. A federal court has ordered the state to reduce its prison population by 40,000 (27%) in two years, but the Governator is fighting the decision tooth and nail.
California is making an an enormous mistake by shipping prisoners far from their families and support networks and replacing them in crowded prisons with new bodies. Cowardly politicians are afraid to make sensible moves on sentencing and parole because they're afraid of the soft-on-crime label, and the public either follows the tough-on-crime propaganda or fails to give the issue serious thought. The result: prisoners remain invisible, prisons remain overcrowded and the system stays in crisis.
Iran Demonstrates the Importance of a Human Rights Award
Published November 03, 2009 @ 09:06AM PT
For the first time in the 18-year history of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, the recipient won’t be allowed by his country to accept the honor in person.
Iranian activist and journalist Emaddedin Baghi has campaigned for years against the death penalty and on behalf of prisoners' rights in his country, and has been sentenced to prison and reprimanded dozens of times for speaking out against Iran's cruel criminal justice system.
Yesterday, Iran prevented him from traveling to receive the human rights award in Geneva. The award is given to human rights advocates who speak out despite considerable risk, and Iran managed to demonstrate the risk under which Baghi works by denying him a travel visa.
What We Believe
Published November 03, 2009 @ 06:59AM PT
Thanks to Gideon at A Public Defender, I recently came across some powerful essays from prisoners on the beliefs they hold at their core.
The essays come from “This I Believe, ” an essay and podcast series exploring the core beliefs we hold in our day to day lives, inspired by a 1950s radio show hosted by Edward R. Murrow. I’ve heard some incredible personal stories on this podcast and on NPR over the last few years, and this group of prisoner essays is no exception.
John, a prisoner in Massachusetts, writes of the cruel Catch-22 of his life: it wasn’t until he got to prison that he realized he had value to others, and now that he’s there he worries that he can’t have the impact he’s meant to have:
The worst part about prison isn’t the violence or the loss of freedom, it’s not being a part of anything that’s good and decent. And it’s the fear that I don’t matter to anyone.
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