The news has been consistently full of disheartening records of ‘lowest since’ and ‘highest since’ for quite a while.  Unemployment is still rising if not accelerating.   12% of all homes with mortgages are either in default, delinquent, or foreclosure.  Nearly every econ...

That's the title of an OpEd in today's Houston Chronicle by Marc Levin, director of the Center for Effective Justice.  LINK As state agencies are asked to prune 2.5 percent of their budgets, lawmakers must take a hard look at Texas’ corrections budget during this legislative session....

"Miller Wants Quick Vote on Death Penalty," is from today's Annapolis Digest in the Washington Post.  It's by John Wagner. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) said yesterday that he would like to see a relatively quick, up-or-down committee vote on a bill t...

"Execution repeal gains ground," is the article in today's Denver Post. A House committee Monday night, after hearing hours of emotional testimony, approved a bill that would ban the death penalty in Colorado. In a more than six-hour hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, famili...

Today's Tennessean carries the OpEd, "Time to end the death penalty out of a sense of fairness."  It'b by Charles Strobel. As a member of the recently completed Committee to Study the Administration of the Death Penalty, I would like to share my reactions to what the committe...

The Houston Chronicle columnist's latest is, "Innocent plea needs court hearing."  Here's an extended excerpt of this must-read commentary: If evidence shows Larry Ray Swearingen is innocent, but there’s no court that will hear it, does actual innocence even matter? That se...

Despite his own claims to the contrary as demonstrated in print and via his ‘valedictory’ last night, the W is for ‘worst’.  USAToday has a visualization that shows the public approval trend. History, as judged by historians, possibly after all those currently living are dead, may i...

Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution carries the editorial, " State must reject urge to ease death penalty."  It's written by editorial board member Maureen Downey.Here's an extended excerpt of this must-read editorial: Many people are frustrated and angry that a Fulton C...

"Executions should be studied instead of enacted this year," is the title of an editorial in today's Tuscaloosa News. Although the death penalty has never been proved as a deterrent to crime, the Alabama Supreme Court has scheduled five capital punishment dates for the first five month...

That's the title of an OpEd in today's Raleigh News & Observer, written by Charles van der Horst, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  LINK  Here's an excerpt: Since 1977, when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized executions after a fiv...