With the holiday season here, there have been a number of developments in the Death Penalty. The New York Times writes in an Editorial: The center suggested a number of reasons for the decline, including that prosecutors and the public are grappling with the wrenching problem of innocence. The irreversible punishment of death requires a [...]

. . . But even if it was the economy, there’s no guarantee that 2012 will be any better. The economy may not improve—in part because the new Republican House majority will oppose any policy that might make things better. And the Obama administration has consistently made the worst politically of a bad economy, overpromising, [...]

Posted: December 27th, 2008 http://www.cityprojectca.org/blog/archives/1205 Los Angeles Times Editorial OUT HERE The Acjachemen’s victory The Acjachemen quietly marked the win against the Foothill South toll road by honoring land that will not be disturbed. December 27, 2008 On the chilly morning of the winter solstice last Sunday, the sun was just cresting the ridgeline of [...]

Think back to when you were a kid . . . What kind of activities did you enjoy at home and at school?  Chances are you conjure images of playing outside – during PE, recess, after school, and on weekends.  You ran, climbed, jumped, kicked, threw, danced, and chased your way to a healthy body.  [...]

Being a death-row lawyer is hard work. Underpaid and overburdened, death-row attorneys are always racing against time; nothing concentrates the mind like an execution date. The stakes are literally life or death in every case, making it virtually impossible to leave the job behind at the office—much less to take a vacation. The clients are [...]

In the current “New York Review of Books,” the retired Justice John Paul Stevens makes a compelling argument for abolishing the death penalty. He explains how it fails to meet the Supreme Court’s own standards for execution and persists only because of misguided political and cultural reasons. . . . The reasons the death penalty [...]

To be reasonable, legislative imposition of death eligibility must be rooted in benefits for at least one of the five classes of persons affected by capital offenses. First, of course, are victims. By definition murder victims are no longer alive and so have no continuing interest. Second are survivors—family and close friends of victims who [...]

“California may be about to execute an innocent man.” That’s the view of five federal judges in a case involving Kevin Cooper, a black man who faces lethal injection next year for supposedly murdering a white family. The judges argue compellingly that he was framed by police. Cooper’s impending execution is so outrageous that it [...]

Dec. 17, 2010 John W. Mack The Los Angeles Police Commission Executive Office Police Administration Building 100 West First Street Suite 134 Los Angeles, CA 90012 Dear Honorable Members of the Police Commission: We are disturbed by the lack of civic action in response to constitutionally-questionable stop-and-frisk practices, often defined as racial profiling, by the [...]

A homeless encampment along the Los Angeles River near Imperial Highway was broken up Monday, forcing about 20 people to move from the area. Officials from South Gate and Lynwood, which share authority over the site with other public and private entities, said the camp had become a health and safety concern, with residents defecating [...]