Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on news that DNA evidence tested FOUR years after the execution of a Black man in Arkansas suggests the state killed an innocent man. Kaylor also highlights the Baptist prophet who tried to stop the execution.
Texas prisons have resumed allowing clergy as well as spiritual advisers in the death chamber, reversing a two-year ban created after the U.S. Supreme Court halted the execution of an inmate who had argued his religious freedom was being violated.
Faith groups are celebrating Virginia’s decision to ban the death penalty, a move considered to be a victory for religious opposition to capital punishment. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed the ban — the first of any Southern state and the 23rd overall — into law on
Senator Tim Kaine: The repeal of the death penalty by its leading practitioner gives hope that work for justice is not in vain. Virginia’s progress shows that it is possible for all. Read full piece
An Alabama inmate on Thursday won a reprieve from a scheduled lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court said the state must allow his personal pastor in the death chamber.
Stephen Reeves: The death penalty is dying in America. I cheer its death. Read full piece
A group of African American pastors, including three Baptists, urged Virginia lawmakers Jan. 7 to abolish the state’s death penalty, equating it to lynching and a declaration that Black lives do not matter. Read full piece
For the ninth time in six months, the Trump administration is preparing to put a federal prisoner to death. Read full piece
President Donald Trump will leave the White House next month after overseeing a deadly year of federal executions. We should pause and reflect on this moment. After all, our government conducts this killing spree in our names and with our resources.
We are not executing the ‘worst of the worst,’ as some may believe, but the poorest of the poor, and disproportionately people of color. And a supposedly pro-life administration is rushing to execute more people with just two months left in office.