This press release from May 2019 reports on the signing of New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act and describes the law this way: The Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act … codifies more meaningful sentence reductions for domestic abuse survivors in the criminal justice system and a key initiative in the Governor’s 2019 Women’s Justice Agenda.  Current law allows judges to administer indeterminate sentences for domestic violence survivors who have committed a crime only in…

Lots of folks have lots of views on what we should make of the the sentencing of Felicity Huffman late last week to 14 days in incarceration in the college bribery scandal. Here are just a sampling of some of the pieces that caught my eye: From CNN, “John Legend says prison is not always the answer after Felicity Huffman’s sentence“ From Walter Palvo at Forbes, “Felicity Huffman And America’s Failing Criminal …

Jesse Wegman has this notable new New York Times piece headlined fully “‘All You Can Do Is Take Care of Your End’: For one inmate serving a life sentence, a new federal law gave hope where there had been none.” I highly recommend the piece in full, and here are some extended excerpts: Imagine that at the age of 28, you’re told you are going to spend the rest of your life in prison with…

As reported in this post from July, federal officials have scheduled as series of executions starting in December of this year and have announced the creation of a new “Federal Execution Protocol Addendum, which … replaces the three-drug procedure previously used in federal executions with a single drug — pentobarbital.”  But according to this new Reuters report, another notable drug was considered by federal officials as they worked to restart the federal machinery…