The fast pace of business has prevented me from being able to update today. Most people visiting here probably know that this morning, the U.S. Supreme Court abolished the juvenile death penalty. This means that 72 people now on death row for crimes committed when they were 16 or 17 years old will now be spared.
It was two years and one month ago that I stood in front of a gaggle of reporters at the National Press Club and introduced Ken McGill, head of our Mississippi affiliate and Steven Hawkins, then executive director of NCADP. We were at the Press Club to unveil NCADP's Campaign to End Juvenile Executions, which has been ably led by my wonderful colleague, Sapna Mirchandani.
It's been a long two years. But today, finally, we won. We won. We won.
3 comments:
Beautiful.
this has been a long time coming and it is great news. i am a bit worried, though, that this decision might be reversed in the future bush-appointed Supreme Court.
I think its doubtful it will be reversed any time soon. Unless one of them dies (or Justice Stevens surprisingly retires), none of the 5 in the majority are likely to leave the Court during the Bush term. If the Chief or Sandra Day leave, they are in the dissent, so that will not change the 5-4 vote. Now, we have to make sure we have the right replacement for Bush in the white house come January 2009.
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