Wrongful Conviction of Youth - Devontae Sanford

False confessions by dysfunctional people are a fact of life. Sanford's confession is about as probative as those given under torture during the Spanish Inquisition, so what gave it enough legs to land Sanford in prison on a guilty plea? The sorry answer is that it made things easy for the criminal justice system.

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State by State Database | Death Penalty Information Center

Check out CALI's death penalty statistics:
State by State Database | Death Penalty Information Center

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Hip Hop & Politics: Privatization of Prisons

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Privatized Prisons and Prison Labor IS Slavery

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Lawsuit Challenges FDA's Inaction on Lethal Injection Drugs in Many States

On February 2, the national law firm of Sidley Austin LLP filed a suit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in federal court on behalf of six death row inmates from Arizona, California, and Tennessee.  The suit seeks to compel the FDA to bar the importation or use of unapproved sodium thiopental, a drug used by most states in lethal injections, but no longer available in the U.S. 
The plaintiff's brief states that, following a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental in 2010, the FDA illegally allowed prison officials to obtain the lethal injection drug from sources outside of the U.S., while refusing to investigate the safety and purity of the imported drugs. 

The inmates are represented by Bradford A. Berenson, a former associate counsel to President George W. Bush and a partner at Sidley.  In a statement released by the law firm, Berenson said, "The law requires FDA to ensure that only safe, effective drugs are brought into the United States. When the agency allowed states to import unapproved sodium thiopental, it abdicated its responsibilities and violated federal law."  Berenson, a supporter of the death penalty, also said that the lawsuit is "not about halting executions but rather about ensuring that illegal drugs are not used in carrying out otherwise lawful sentences."  Read full press release from Sidley Austin LLP and read Complaint filed against FDA.

The suit alleges that inmates from the named states face execution with drugs that have been illegally imported and may cause severe harm.  The suit states that the imported sodium thiopental is "unapproved, misbranded, [and] adulterated," all in violation of federal law. 

(N. Koppel, "FDA Dragged Into Execution-Drug Controversy," The Wall Street Journal, February 2, 2011).  See Lethal Injection.

This information was taken from a blog post from a friend on http://prisonlinks.lefora.com. The post can be found at: http://bit.ly/fDxIHR 

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Death Penalty Documentary: Execution Tour of NC Death Row

The following can be found at: http://prisonrideshare.ning.com/

A death penalty documentary short film (10 minutes) by Scott Langley. The warden of North Carolina's Central Prison (Marvin Polk) narrates the preparation and final hours before a state execution in Raleigh, where the execution facilities are located.

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