Tag: Criminal Justice

Posted inMedia & Culture, Views & Reviews

Book Review: Bernie Sanders’ “Guide to Political Revolution” aims to be teen resource

by David A Johnson

Democ­rats still get into argu­ments about the mer­its (or lack there­of) of Hillary Clin­ton’s and Bernie Sanders’ can­di­da­cies for the 2016 Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial nom­i­na­tion. It’s why many of us on the left con­tin­ue, inex­orably, view­ing con­tem­po­rary events as a chance to re-lit­i­­gate that con­test and who was right. To say that Bernie Sanders: Guide to […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Media & Culture, Views & Reviews

Documentary Review: Ava DuVernay’s “13th” offers eye-opening look at mass incarceration

by Theresa Curry Almuti

If you have yet to see Ava DuVer­nay’s Oscar-nom­i­­nat­ed and Emmy-win­n­ing doc­u­men­tary “13th”, you should real­ly make plans to screen it as soon as pos­si­ble. This short com­men­tary will sure­ly not do it jus­tice. Kevin Gan­non, Pro­fes­sor of His­to­ry at Grand­view Uni­ver­si­ty, who is white, sums up the chal­lenge we as coun­try face today early […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Policy Topics

Detainees at NWDC immigration prison revive hunger strike in response to abuse

by Kaylinne Shaffer

Today at noon, over one hun­dred peo­ple being detained in the West Coast’s largest immi­gra­tion prison in Taco­ma — the North­west Deten­tion Cen­ter  — launched a hunger strike in response to inhu­mane liv­ing con­di­tions at the prison. Detainees refus­ing their lunch­es cir­cu­lat­ed a let­ter of demand regard­ing vio­la­tions of what most Wash­ing­ton res­i­dents would consider […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Policy Topics

Attorney General Bob Ferguson unveils bipartisan legislation to abolish executions

by Christian Cahua

Flanked by for­mer Attor­ney Gen­er­al Rob McKen­na and Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee, cur­rent Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son today announced a major new effort to abol­ish the bar­bar­ic prac­tice of state-spon­­sored exe­cu­tions in Wash­ing­ton, sup­port­ed by a bipar­ti­san group of leg­is­la­tors from each house. Declar­ing that it is the respon­si­bil­i­ty of lead­ers to lead, Fer­gu­son said the time […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Policy Topics, World Commmunity

VICTORY! Delaware Supreme Court declares state’s death penalty law unconstitutional

by Andrew Villeneuve

A sig­nif­i­cant vic­to­ry for human rights has been won today: The Delaware Supreme Court has ruled the state’s death penal­ty law is uncon­sti­tu­tion­al – and the only chance at fix­ing it is to punt the issue to the already-divid­ed Gen­er­al Assem­bly. The top court released its rul­ing Tues­day that said Delaware’s cur­rent cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment statute vio­lates the U.S. Con­sti­tu­tion by […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Policy Topics, World Commmunity

Connecticut’s Supreme Court puts an end to all executions in the Nutmeg State

by Andrew Villeneuve

This is a great vic­to­ry for human rights that deserves to be cel­e­brat­ed: After a sweep­ing two-year review, the state Supreme Court out­lawed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Con­necti­cut, say­ing the state’s death penal­ty no longer com­ports with evolved soci­etal val­ues and serves no valid pur­pose as pun­ish­ment. The 4–3 deci­sion would remove 11 con­victs from Con­necti­cut’s […]

Posted inBreaking News, Civil Liberties, Policy Topics, World Commmunity

Nebraska lawmakers abolish executions, overriding Republican governor’s veto

by Andrew Villeneuve

Joy­ous news to report on today. Law­mak­ers in the reli­ably con­ser­v­a­tive state of Nebras­ka today took a coura­geous stand for human rights and dig­ni­ty by over­rid­ing Repub­li­can Gov­er­nor Pete Rick­etts’ veto of leg­is­la­tion that would per­ma­nent­ly abol­ish exe­cu­tions. With no votes to spare, the uni­cam­er­al Nebras­ka Leg­is­la­ture vot­ed to make the Corn­husker State the nine­teenth state […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Policy Topics, Public Service

Loretta Lynch confirmed as the United States of America’s new Attorney General

by Andrew Villeneuve

Well, it’s final­ly hap­pened. After many con­temptible delays, the Unit­ed States Sen­ate final­ly took up Loret­ta Lynch’s nom­i­na­tion today and vot­ed to con­firm her as the nation’s next Attor­ney Gen­er­al, which means that incum­bent Eric Hold­er can final­ly pack his bags and leave office, as he has want­ed to do for many months. A relieved […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Elections, Open Government, Policy Topics

Federal grand jury returns ten count indictment of State Auditor Troy Kelley

by Andrew Villeneuve

State Audi­tor Troy Kel­ley has been indict­ed by a fed­er­al grand jury for fil­ing false tax returns, mak­ing false dec­la­ra­tions, obstruct­ing jus­tice, and pos­sess­ing stolen prop­er­ty, the Unit­ed States Attor­ney for West­ern Wash­ing­ton announced today. The ten count indict­ment was returned by a jury in the U.S. Dis­trict Court in Seat­tle. Kel­ley is due to […]