Vote Yes on 34 today!

Dear Californians, Today, among your many awesome responsibilities, you have the opportunity to end your state’s death penalty, a penalty that is cruel and wasteful in every sense. If you don’t already know the facts, head over to Safe California and find...

Yes on 34 tour

I’ve landed in California for a week of events for the Yes on 34 campaign. Proposition 34, the SAFE California Act, will replace California’s death penalty with a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole as the maximum punishment for murder....

Tweet!

I’ve emerged from a summer of writing in Wyoming and I’m back on the road doing talks with people in Texas and… http://t.co/og7pg2hH # Here’s a simple step you can take to help SAFE California no matter where you live. Head on over to...

No better place than Oregon

Last week, Oregon’s governor, John Kitzhaber, took a stance for life. He refused to sign the death warrant for Gary Haugin and then he went further. He said no to any more executions on his watch. He’d allowed two executions to proceed in his earlier terms...

A visit to Occupy Portland

I’ve been in Oregon for the past week, talking to groups of people around the state. On Saturday, I headed to Occupy Portland, one of the largest and best organized of the Occupy events happening across the nation, to witness this wonderful expression of the...

Being held accountable

A victory today for all of us who seek to hold our governments accountable for human rights abuses. Former President George W. Bush has had to cancel his trip to Switzerland this week because he faces the threat of arrest if he enters the country. A group of...

Legal profession gives up on the death penalty

Truth springs up from the ground” - Psalm 85 For the last twenty years I’ve been watching at close range the bizarre and zany way the death penalty comes down on some and spares others. Theory about how the death penalty is supposed to be applied – who deserves...

Yes, WA, there is a death penalty here

I was in Washington state earlier this month, where I met with two senators in Olympia, the state capitol, to plan a strategy to repeal the death penalty in Washington. It’s been years since there was an execution here and only a handful of people are on death row. As...

Starting a conversation with President Obama

President Obama met with the press before his visit with Pope Benedict on July 10. He talked about how he admired Cardinal Bernardine’s “seamless garment” approach to pro-life, that the cardinal included in its scope a wide range of issues: “He...

“We did not surrender to despotism”

I am following the people of Iran in their struggle for democracy closely in my heart and prayer these days. My heart takes fire from the young people risking their lives to help a new nation come. Take young Neda Agha Soltan, killed by a single bullet this past...