Sirhan Sirhan Denied Parole Again

Politics and justice are in tension.

Garland’s Moratorium on Federal Executions

A thorough review of the fairness of the process will be conducted.

Is the Death Penalty Unconstitutional?

Dissenters to a denied emergency appeal argue it is.

Interpreting Interpretation

A too-long discourse on how courts should function.

Our Awful Criminal Justice System

A stroll down memory lane.

Democrats and the Death Penalty

California Governor Gavin Newsome may have put the issue front and center for 2020.

[Death penalty - image of a stretcher with shackles] [Death penalty - image of a stretcher with shackles]

Supreme Court Rules No Right to ‘Painless Death’

The replacement of Anthony Kennedy with Brett Kavanaugh is already having a significant impact.

Supreme Court Places Limits On Civil Asset Forfeiture

The Supreme Court issued a ruling that places new limits on civil asset forfeiture by state and local government.

Supreme Court Appears Poised to Rein In Civil Asset Forfeiture:

The Supreme Court appears ready to impose at least some limits on civil asset forfeiture at the state level.

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Civil Asset Forfeiture Case

We may finally get a ruling applying the Excessive Fine Clause to the states and limiting the ability of police to confiscate property.

[Death penalty - image of a stretcher with shackles] [Death penalty - image of a stretcher with shackles]

Alabama Botches Another Execution

My former home state executes more people per capita than any other state in the union. It has not gotten much better at it.

Trump: Execute All the Big Drug Dealers

The President would like to copy Singapore’s zero-tolerance policy. The US Constitution stands in his way.

California Not Executing Enough People, Says Federal Judge

The most novel argument yet against capital punishment.

Sequestration and the 6th Amendment Right to Counsel

Chief Justice Roberts is sounding the alarm over deep cuts to the public defender program.

Supreme Court: No Mandatory Life Without Parole For Juveniles

Today, the Supreme Court decided that mandatory life sentences for juveniles violate the 8th Amendment.

America’s Prison Culture Destroying Our Future

We’re literally choosing locking up drug offenders over investing in our children.

California Must Release 40,000 Prisoners

Prisons can be so overcrowded as to constitute cruel and inhuman punishment.

Prison Rape and the 13th Amendment

The state has an 8th Amendment duty to protect those it incarcerates from brutality, a duty which it quite often fails to carry out because of indifference and the hiring of “corrections officers” who are often of incredibly low intellectual caliber and moral character.

Prison Rape

Rape is the de facto sentence for prisoners placed in many of our prisons and penitentiaries.

Domestic Prison Abuse

Many of the things that happened at Abu Ghraib routinely take place in our domestic penitentiary system.

EXCESSIVE FINES