Friday Tweets: A New Justice

by Matt Kelley · 2009-08-07 18:48:00 UTC
Topics:

Here are some links from the week in crime in punishment.

As you already know, Sonia Sotomayor was approved by the U.S. Senate this week. It's a historic nomination and I think she'll be a balanced justice, not always a friend of prisoners and defendants, but at least bringing a thoughtful and understanding approach in every case. It's really the most we could ask for. She takes the oath tomorrow. Here are a few interesting posts you may have missed during the Sotomayor-fest:

Obama got back to the work of nominating federal judges this week, but some critics say the seven people he has appointed so far have been too old.

It was a big week for the innocence movement:

Alaska lawmakers held a hearing to discuss the state's skyrocketing rate of sexual assaults. The state is first in the nation per-capita sex assaults, its rate is twice the national average.

Michael Douglas' son could face life in prison for selling meth.

Quote of the Week, in the 'I'll Believe it When I See It' category: "A policy of strictly controlling and being cautious to use the death penalty ... requires judicial departments to use as few death penalties as possible, meaning you don't kill those who you don't have to kill," Zhang Jun, vice president of the Supreme People's Court.

ReTweets of the Week:

@beautiful_u Pics from a beauty pageant in a Russian women's prison - Boing Boing http://bit.ly/h4xzZ [Editor's note: also see http://bit.ly/1bv9KL]

@HR1529 Ex-NY judge gets prison for recruiting prostitutes http://bit.ly/2w1DXp

@AJCOnline STATE NEWS: Council: Public defender cuts may compromise representation http://ow.ly/15KfET

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Restorative Justice and the Reform Dialogue
NEXT STORY:
Make the Call! Stop the Torture of Special Needs Children in Massachusetts

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.