Good News, Bad News, and an Invitation!

Dear Friends,

The Good
In the realm of good news, Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow on Groundhog Day. If tradition holds true, we should expect an early spring. After a month of gray days, I’ll take that as a win.

I also wanted to share some personal good news — I will be starting a new book project with the University of California Press. More details to come in the months ahead, but I’ve just signed the contract and am gearing up for what I believe will be an exciting and important project about sentencing reform within the larger criminal legal system.

The Bad
Now for the bad news, from the the upside-down world of capital punishment.

At the end of January, Alabama became the first state to use nitrogen hypoxia to execute a man named Kenneth Smith. Mr. Smith was convicted of a murder-for-hire in March 1988. The jury that convicted him voted to sentence him to life imprisonment, but the judge unilaterally overturned the jury’s decision and sentenced Mr. Smith to death. The law that allowed the judge to do that has since been abolished. But that was of small comfort for Mr. Smith. Witnesses to the execution shared graphic details of Smith thrashing and gasping for air for nearly twenty-five minutes before he was finally declared dead.

In additional death penalty news, Idaho has an execution scheduled for the end of the month — and they are considering using the firing squad as the method of state-sponsored killing.

And in Texas, Ivan Cantu is scheduled for execution at the end of February, despite an extremely compelling claim that he is actually innocent of any wrongdoing. You can learn more about Mr. Cantu’s case and actions you can take today here.

There are better and more effective ways to respond to crime than capital punishment, which has no place in a civilized society.

An Invitation
And now for the invitation. Blind Injustice, an opera composed by Montclair’s very own Scott Richards, and based on the book Blind Injustice by Mark Godsey, Director of the Ohio Innocence Project, will be performed at Montclair State University on Friday, February 16th at 7:30 PM and on Sunday, February 18th at 3:00 PM. Blind Injustice tells the true stories of six people who were wrongly convicted and ultimately exonerated with the help of the Ohio Innocence Project. Immediately following both performances, there will be a public conversation with two of the exonerated people featured in the show.

I will be at both performances and would love to see you there. It is sure to be a compelling and inspiring event. To buy your tickets, head to the Peak Performance website.

I’ll be writing monthly newsletters from here on out, so look for another update in March. In the meantime, I hope you and your families are safe and well.

Take good care,

Jessica

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