Today, we have been celebrating Juneteenth as the true end of slavery. But was it? No, to the surprise of many, slavery is still legal. It’s time this ends*.  When Congress passed the 13th Amendment in 1865, it included an exception that allows slavery to be used “as a punishment for crime.” The exception was a concession to slave states that wanted continued access to free labor. It pushed slavery behind prison walls and ushered in the most brutal era of convict leasing and chain gangs, remnants of which persist today. Roughly two million people — still dispropor ..read more

By Jane Corley At a late lunch here in Oklahoma City two hours ago we learned – to jubilant delight – that Oklahoma’s death row prisoner Richard Glossip had at 1:18pm been granted a stay of his execution scheduled for May 18, 2023 by the U.S. Supreme Court.  We hollered, praised our various gods, and sent friends pictures of each of us beaming and sporting victory hand signs. But Glossip isn’t out of the woods yet.  He has been granted breathing time for an indeterminate period pending the Court’s decision to grant certiorari, or cert, in two separate underlying cases.  “Should ..read more

Interview with Raymond Johnson on Oklahoma Death Row By Cantor Michael Zoosman My name is Cantor Michael Zoosman. I am a former prison chaplain, an advisory board member of Death Penalty Action and the co-founder of “L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty.,” where we are in touch with all human beings in our nation who receive an execution warrant. For the past year, I’ve been corresponding nearly daily with Mr. Raymond Johnson, a man condemned to die on Oklahoma’s Death Row. Raymond’s profound faith, his desire to do his best to transform himself in the wake of his crimes, and his mode ..read more

By Rabbi Benjamin Zober and Abraham Bonowitz The first Texas execution in 2023 is set for Tuesday, January 10th, and there remain serious questions for which there are no dependable answers. On Wednesday last week, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed an opportunity to seek answers purely on procedural grounds, without even considering the questions. On Monday, January 9, 2023, the US Supreme Court denied the final pending appeal seeking to halt the execution. In a state where so many in policy-making positions cite scripture to support executions, it is worth taking a look at how a f ..read more

  Lamentations: On John Henry Ramirez   In South Texas, John Henry Ramirez robbed and murdered Pablo Castro in 2004.  In fact, Ramirez stabbed him 29 times.  A short time later, Ramirez robbed a second victim.  Then, Ramirez fled to Mexico where he was able to avoid capture for a little over three and a half years.  No one disputes these facts…not even Ramirez himself.  For his crimes, Ramirez was sentenced to death in Nueces County.   Truthfully, most were unaware that John Henry Ramirez’s September of 2021 execution date was approaching.  In the ..read more

screenshot / istock   September 13, 2022   Alabama Insanity: On the Potential Gas Chamber Execution of Alan Eugene Miller     Before government officials in Alabama go ahead with an untested gas chamber execution of Alan Eugene Miller (nitrogen hypoxia), it might be wise to consider a few experiential facts…   Millions upon millions of people were killed in Nazi gas chambers during the Holocaust.   On September 2, 1983, Jimmy Lee Gray was tightly restrained inside Mississippi’s gas chamber.  At the time, the chamber had an iron vertical bar that ran up the ..read more

Pull Back The Curtains on Executions!!! crossposted @ Patheos, https://www.patheos.com/blogs/jeffhood/pull-back-the-curtains-on-executions/ By Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood On July 28, 2022 at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama Department of Corrections officials strapped Joe James, Jr. to a gurney and prepared him to be executed. Normally this should take minutes. For over three hours beyond his scheduled execution time, gathered reporters, witnesses and other interested parties waited and waited and waited. Two states over, I was sitting in my office in Arkansas, helping lead an online ex ..read more

James Coddington was… Abandoned. Abused. Poor. Malnourished. Filthy. Beaten. Kicked. Thrown. Traumatized. Unsupervised. Underdeveloped. Ridiculed. Belittled. Condemned. Addicted. Mentally ill An alcoholic. …all before the age of 9 years old. If you met a child who had gone through all these things…how would you respond?  Hopefully, any of us would do all that we could to help the child.  But the problem is that we didn’t help Coddington in his most crucial years…and like all problems that aren’t dealt with…things got worse…much worse. As he got older, James Coddington turned to the ..read more

  Lamentations: On Kosoul Chantakoumanne   Make no mistake…Sarah Walker was brutally murdered in McKinney Texas in 2007.  Somebody should pay for such a crime.  Unfortunately, it’s quite possible that the wrong man is being called to account.  Here’s why.   The bedrock of every murder investigation is the establishment of a motive.  The McKinney Police Department (MPD) tried to say that Kosoul Chantakoumanne sexually assaulted and killed Sarah Walker.  When no evidence of sexual assault was able to be established, MPD changed the perceived motive to one ..read more

  Lamentations: On Joe James (Execution Date: July 28)   Joe Nathan James, Jr. killed Faith Hall in 1994.  There doesn’t seem to be much doubt about that.  However, doubt about guilt isn’t necessary to have doubt about the punishment.  The death penalty is abhorrently problematic and this case illustrates why…starkly.   For several years, James carefully kept transcripts, documents and potential evidence from his case with him in his cell.  Then one day…as he was out to court & their cells were being rearranged…guards threw all of these documents in the ..read more