Justice for Reginald “Reggie” Clemons

(St. Louis, Mo.) — More than two and a half years into its global campaign to spare Reggie Clemons’s life and expose the serious mistakes that led to his death sentence, Amnesty International said today it is hopeful that a Missouri judge will bring to light the “highly disturbing” aspects of the 19-year-old case as he opens an extraordinary reexamination of evidence on Monday, Sept. 17.

The special hearing for Clemons, which may take several days, is shadowed by the one-year anniversary on Sept. 21 of the execution of Troy Davis in Georgia. The two cases are eerily similar and highlight many of the failures of the death penalty. Both men are African American and were accused as young men of murder, although no physical evidence tied them to the deaths. In addition, the cases involved suspected police coercion, possible racial bias, inadequate legal representation and unreliable witness testimony.

Laura Moye, director of Amnesty International USA’s Death Penalty Abolition Campaign, said:

We know that mistakes regularly occur in death penalty cases and the innocent are executed. Troy Davis went to his death in Georgia because the justice system failed to adequately scrutinize the doubts raised about his conviction. We commend the Missouri Supreme Court for setting in motion a very unique hearing of Clemons’s case. There is a real opportunity for Missouri to right a wrong and establish a path forward to truth and justice. Additionally, we hope that state lawmakers will look at this case as a symptom of a badly flawed death penalty that must be addressed.

Given the organization’s concerns with the case stemming from its groundbreaking 2010 investigation, Moye will attend the hearing along with other Amnesty International supporters who have been building awareness about the case in Missouri and around the world and campaigning to prevent his execution.

Reginald “Reggie” Clemons

After the hearing, Judge Manners will pass along his recommendations to the Missouri Supreme Court. He could recommend overturning the conviction and ordering a new trial, overturning the death sentence only, or he could recommend leaving the verdict and sentence intact, paving the way for a possible execution. Clemons was sentenced to death as an accomplice in the 1991 deaths of two young women who died after falling from a bridge over the Mississippi River. He has been on death row since 1993.

“This hearing ultimately could determine whether Reggie Clemons will live or die,” said Moye.

The special hearing before Judge Michael Manners will reportedly examine new evidence, including a rape kit found in a police evidence room in March 2010 – nearly two decades after the crime (the hearing begins at 9 a.m. at Carnahan Court building, 114 Market St. between 11th and 12th St).

On Tuesday, more than 13,000 people sent online messages of support to deliver to the Rev. Reynolds Thomas, Reggie’s father, at a rally Saturday, Sept. 15, two days before the hearing.

Hundreds of activists will join Amnesty International and other groups at the rally from noon to 3 pm in St. Louis to show their support for Clemons and his family at this pivotal time (Kiener Plaza by Olive St. and Market St.).

Investigation Questions Fairness of Trial

In its groundbreaking 2010 investigation, “Death by Prosecutorial Misconduct and A ‘Stacked’ Jury,” Amnesty International raised serious concerns about the fairness of Clemons’s trial, including disturbing patterns of prosecutorial misconduct, the unusual selection of a predominantly white jury, the alleged violent police assault on Clemons during interrogation and the woefully poor legal representation he had at trial.

No physical evidence ties Clemons to the deaths. The prosecution conceded that Clemons neither killed the sisters, nor planned the crime. Instead, his fate rested on the testimony of two white men – one of whom had been a suspect and was also a first cousin of the two victims, and the other a co-defendant. Both are now free. Clemons, who was 19 when the deaths occurred, has been on death row since 1993.

Clemons was convicted and sentenced to death as an accomplice in the murder of Julie, 20, and Robin Kerry, 19, who died after falling from a bridge over the Mississippi River. One body was never recovered from the river. Two other African American men were sentenced to death in the case. Marlin Gray was executed in 2005; the death sentence against Antonio Richardson was reduced to life in prison in 2003.

Since Amnesty International launched its appeal to save Clemons’s life, more than 70,000 people around the globe have taken action to demand justice for him.

Over 1,300 men and women have been executed in the United States since capital punishment resumed in 1977. In 2011, 43 men were put to death; 27 have been executed so far this year.

Reprint: Amnesty International USA

Related:  Death Penalty on Trial: The Reggie Clemons Interview (Video)

Justice for Reggie Clemons (Website)

Amnesty International Fact Sheet

 

California Death Penalty Ban Qualifies for November Ballot -By Maura Dolan| L.A. Times

California is set for a major debate on the death penalty following qualification Monday of a November ballot measure that would replace capital punishment with a life term without possibility of parole.

If passed, the measure would make California the 18th state in the nation without a death penalty. During the last five years, four states have replaced the death penalty and Connecticut is soon to follow.

Growing numbers of conservatives in California have joined the effort to repeal the state’s capital punishment law, expressing frustration with its price tag and the rarity of executions. California has executed 13 inmates in 23 years, and prisoners are far more likely to die of old age on death row than by the executioner’s needle.

November’s ballot measure would commute the sentences of more than 700 people on death row to life without possibility of parole, a term that would then become the state’s most severe form of criminal punishment.

Most death row inmates would be returned to the general prison population and be expected to work. Their earnings would go to crime victims.

Worth noting: A ban on the death penalty is expected to save the state billions of dollars in the future. A recent study estimates that California has spent over $4 billion dollars on capital punishment since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978.

Excerpt, read: California Death Penalty Ban Qualifies for November Ballot -By Maura Dolan| L.A. Times

Related: California Thirsty for Blood | RT News (Video)

California Cost Study 2011 | Death Penalty Information Center

SAFE California Act (Website)

Methods of Execution : Death Row, The Final 24 Hours | Discovery Channel (Video)

 

Connecticut Legislature Repeals Death Penalty -By Shannon Young | TIME

(Hartford, Conn.) — After years of failed attempts to repeal the death penalty, Connecticut lawmakers in both the House and the Senate have passed legislation that abolishes the punishment for all future cases.

As expected, members of the House voted 86-62 in favor of the bill after a floor debate that lasted nearly 10 hours on Wednesday.

The legislation, which would make Connecticut the 17th state to abolish the death penalty, awaits a signature from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who has said he would sign the bill into law. “Going forward, we will have a system that allows us to put these people away for life, in living conditions none of us would want to experience,” the Democratic governor said in a statement following the vote. “Let’s throw away the key and have them spend the rest of their natural lives in jail.”

The bill would abolish the death penalty and replace it with a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of release.

Lawmakers were able to garner support by making the legislation affect only future crimes and not the 11 men currently on death row.

Four other states have abolished the death penalty in the past five years: Illinois, New Jersey, New York and New Mexico.

Excerpt, read: Connecticut Legislature Repeals Death Penalty -By Shannon Young | TIME

CONNECTICUT, RACE & THE DEATH PENALTY

Facts worth noting:  In Connecticut, seven out of 10, or 70 percent, of death row inmates are African-American or Latino, whereas only 9 percent of Connecticut’s population is African-American and 10 percent is Latino, according to theAmerican Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut.

Studies have shown the most important factor in levying the death penalty is race. Those who kill a white person are shown to be more likely to receive the death penalty than those who kill a Black or Latino person.

Source: Connecticut Legislature Repeals Death Penalty -By Danielle Wright | BET

 

STOP THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS!

UPDATE: On September 20th, the Georgia Board of Pardons & Paroles DENIED Troy Davis’ petition for clemency. He is scheduled to be executed on September 21, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.

Troy Davis is at risk of execution as early as September 2011, even though grave doubts about his guilt remain. Part One “The Investigation” gives a thorough explanation of the case as well as the many problems with how the crime was investigated.With all legal appeals exhausted, Davis’ fate will be in the hands of Georgia’s Board of Pardons and Paroles. Once his execution date is scheduled, they will be presented with the option of permanently preventing his execution.

Part Two “A Case Unraveled” examines how the evidence in his case has completely fallen apart.

Part Three “Proving Innocence” examines how the legal system makes it extraordinarily difficult to prove one’s innocence.

Part Four “Clemency” explains what clemency is and why it is appropriate for Davis’ case.

Why is Amnesty International interested in the Troy Davis case? Troy Davis is at risk of execution as early as September 2011, even though grave doubts about his guilt remain. This video tells the deeper story of Troy Davis through the lens of human rights and death penalty abolition.

Imposition of the death penalty is arbitrary and capricious. Decision of who will live and who will die for his crime turns less on the nature of the offense and the incorrigibility of the offender and more on inappropriate and indefensible considerations: the political and personal inclinations of prosecutors; the defendant’s wealth, race and intellect; the race and economic status of the victim; the quality of the defendant’s counsel; and the resources allocated to defense lawyers. ~J. Gerald Heaney, former appellate judge

Related: Benjamin Jealous of NAACP on Global Movement to Stop the Execution of Troy Davis in Georgia | Democracy Now! (Video)

• Troy Davis’ Sister: The Fight for Troy Has Brought Us A Whole New Family All Over the World | Democracy Now! (Video)

• The Innocence of Troy Davis –By E.D. Kain | Forbes

• Troy Davis Execution: Former FBI Chief William S. Sessions Calls on Georgia to Stay Order –By John Rudolf | Huffington Post

• How to Help Troy Davis –By Peter Rothberg | The Nation

• Stop the Execution of Troy Davis | Amnesty International

• Stop the Execution of Troy Davis | NAACP

 

Texas, The Death Penalty & International Law –By Nicole Allan | The Atlantic

On Thursday, Texas is scheduled to execute its seventh prisoner this year. While anti-death penalty advocates have rallied against all the executions, this particular case has also drawn protests from former judges and diplomats, the UN, and the Obama administration — not out of opposition to capital punishment, but concern for America’s place in the international community. As Thursday draws nearer, mounting pressure on Texas to stay the execution underscores both the U.S.’s global isolation in its commitment to the death penalty and the highly charged domestic politics of navigating international law.

Humberto Leal Garcia, Jr. is a Mexican citizen who was sentenced to death by a Texas jury in 1994 for rape and murder. Texas provided Garcia with court-appointed lawyers, but at no point during his arrest or trial did the state inform him of his right to contact the Mexican consulate, which could have provided him legal aid. This right is guaranteed by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, signed by the U.S., Mexico, and 171 other nations. In its treatment of Garcia, Texas was in violation of international law.

Whether or not Garcia’s sentencing would have been different with the help of Mexican lawyers, Texas’s decision puts the U.S. in a difficult position abroad — many worry that, if we do not respect the consular rights of foreign nationals, other countries will have less incentive to respect those of our citizens.

Excerpt, read:  In Texas, A Death Penalty Showdown with International Law –By Nicole Allan | The Atlantic

 

Blood, Justice and Corruption: Why the Chinese Love Their Death Penalty –By Teng Biao | TIME

Of all the criminal cases in China, those involving corrupt officials sentenced to death arouse the greatest interest. The morbid examples abound: from the public cheering for the recent death sentences for the two deputy mayors of Suzhou and Hangzhou to the executions of the head of the State Food and Drug Administration, of the Secretary of Justice of Chongqing City, and of the vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

China is the global leader for the number of corrupt officials who are sentenced to death, and actually executed each year. But, judging by the seemingly endless “public demand” for this kind of punishment and the surging popular anger, it would seem that there is actually not enough of it. While so many people are “beheaded,” executives at all levels are still determined to brave death by trying to make the most of corruption.

one cannot help but wonder, are there too many or too few executions in China? What else should be taken into account when considering the fate of corrupt officials — apart from the law, international human rights standards, and the public opinion? See the bright side of the death sentence in China.

Strictly speaking, China has no “justice,” relying only on “political law” when it comes down to dealing with corrupt officials. The so-called “double regulation” (the Communist Party’s special investigative procedure in which officials are asked to respond to allegations of corruption or other violations) means that sentences are delivered under the guidance of the Chinese Communist Party’s discipline inspection departments, and that the code of criminal procedure is only a reference, just as the prosecution and the trial are just a semblance of justice.

It is almost unheard of for Chinese judges dealing with corruption cases to make independent judgments by relying solely on the judicial procedure, evidence submitted, and the law. Deciding whether to indict a corrupt official, and how to deal with him, is to a great extent not the result of an enactment of the law, but rather the outcome of a political power struggle.

When corrupt officials confess their crimes in court, they most often say that they had lowered their personal standards, and strayed away from their thinking and principles learned during their education. Sometimes they may add that they had a poor understanding of the law. A country that regards materialism as a model is in fact floating on idealism. The most important factors lying at the root of corruption have never actually been discussed, neither in the media, nor elsewhere. See if China will ease up on executions.

If political education is the answer to rampant corruption, then all the propaganda courses we are constantly exposed to would have solved the problem by now. It is thus obvious that the reason for corruption lies elsewhere, in the fact that there isn’t enough control and supervision over public power, and in the lack of democratic elections and freedom of the press.

The current level of corruption in China is systematic and widespread. It is so entrenched that honest officials are now part of a minority that risks being left behind. It is a system where corruption is the rule rather than the exception, and it is thus not an exaggeration to say that transparent officials are victims in a country that lacks democracy, supervision, and has a weak judicial system. This means that, no matter how great the anger of the public, it will not be sufficient to put a stop to corruption.

If the anger of the public is understandable, it doesn’t mean that the death penalty is the right remedy for the problem. On the contrary, the reasons for abolishing the death penalty are numerous. One of them would be that, like most crimes, corruption has a strong social dimension. Criminals are never born evil, and, in the case of corruption, it is quite clear that social factors play an important role. Corrupt people are of course despicable, but society has to accept a certain amount of responsibility too.

Excerpt, read:  Blood, Justice and Corruption: Why the Chinese Love Their Death Penalty –By Teng Biao, Economic Observer & WorldCrunch | TIME

 

Death Sentences & Executions in 2010 | AI

Countries which continue to use the death penalty are being left increasingly isolated following a decade of progress towards abolition, Amnesty International has said today in its new report Death Sentences and Executions in 2010.

A total of 31 countries abolished the death penalty in law or in practice during the last 10 years but China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the USA and Yemen remain amongst the most frequent executioners, some in direct contradiction of international human rights law.

The total number of executions officially recorded by Amnesty International in 2010 went down from at least 714 people in 2009 to at least 527 in 2010, excluding China.

China is believed to have executed thousands in 2010 but continues to maintain its secrecy over its use of the death penalty.

“The minority of states that continue to systematically use the death penalty were responsible for thousands of executions in 2010, defying the global anti-death penalty trend,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

 

When Forensics Wrongly Convicts | Newsweek

Michael Williams/ Getty Images

Two hundred and sixty-six people have been exonerated by DNA in the United States after spending years—sometimes decades—in prison for crimes they did not commit. More than half of these people were convicted on the basis of bad forensic evidence.

In some cases, the forensic methods themselves had few or no professional guidelines or objective criteria. In other cases, analysts used scientifically valid tests but fudged or misstated the science in their testimony. Here’s a list of some common areas for mistakes or malice – and men who have suffered as a result.

Blood Type Matching

Images Source-Rex USA (top); Michael Paulsen / Houston Chronicle-AP

Before DNA became widely available, forensics analysts relied heavily on serology, or blood typing (above). Eighty percent of the population – known as ‘secretors’- expresses its blood type in body fluids other than blood, such as semen or saliva, and prosecutors often tried to identify rapists by matching the blood type in their semen – a flawed system, since the samples often mixed together, making it difficult to tell which secretions came from the victim and which came from the attacker.

At Gary Alvin Richard’s 1987 rape trial, a supervisor from the Houston Police Department Crime lab told jurors that Richard (bottom) was a non-secretor. This was damning evidence, the supervisor told the jury, because the attacker in the case was a non-secretor; only 20 percent of the population are non-secretors. Twenty years later, investigators re-tested Richard and discovered that he is, in fact, a secretor. He was freed in 2009 after 22 years in prison.

Blood Spatter Analysis

Photos courtesy of the Innocence Project of Texas

When Warren Horinek’s (pictured above) wife Bonnie was shot at close range in 1995, all the evidence seemed to point to suicide. But Horinek was convicted of murdering her and sentenced to thirty years in prison. At his trial, blood spatter analyst Tom Bevel told jurors that the fine spray of blood on Horinek’s t-shirt were a sure sign that Warren had shot Bonnie. The jury foreman later confirmed that this testimony convinced the jury to convict.

A 2009 report by the National Academies of Science warned that “the opinions of bloodstain pattern analysts are more subjective than scientific” and said the “uncertainties associated with bloodstain pattern analysis are enormous.”  That same year, a reconstruction of the crime scene by a more qualified spatter analyst shows that the spatter on Horinek’s t-shirt was most likely created by performing CPR. Horinek’s lawyers have filed a writ of habeas corpus to try to have him released.

Hair Analysis

Hair image courtesy of Max Houck (left); From top right: Jose F. Moreno / AP; Brian Bohannon / AP; Bill Wolf / AP

In microscopic hair comparison, an analyst compares hair from a suspect with hair found at a crime scene under a microscope (as seen at left above). If the hairs appear similar, or share unusual characteristics, they are often said to “match.” But the matching process is entirely subjective, and whether characteristics are unusual or noteworthy is based only on the analyst’s experience; there is no data on how common various characteristics are. Even if an analyst is cautious and says on the stand that a defendant “cannot be excluded”—that the hairs could be his—“the jury has no idea how many people are included,” says UVA Law Professor Brandon Garrett. “It’s incredibly vague terminology.”

Larry Peterson (top) was convicted of a 1987 rape and murder when a forensic analyst concluded that hairs found on and near the victim were Peterson’s. When the hairs were later tested for DNA, all matched the victim. Peterson was exonerated in 2006.

William Gregory (center) served 7 years of a 70 year sentence for convicted of rape, attempted rape, and burglary before he was exonerated in 2000. The  forensic analyst at his trial testified that hairs found at the crime scene were “more than likely” from Gregory due to their “Negroid origin” and unusual characteristics.

In some cases, questions about the accuracy of the science take a backseat to outright fraud: Curtis McCarthy (bottom) was convicted based on hair and fluid evidence, but was released from prison in 2007 when it was revealed that a member of the forensics team willingly tampered with evidence and gave false testimony.

Fiber Matching

Heather Ainsworth / AP (left); Courtesy of the Innocence Project

Steven Barnes was convicted of a 1985 rape and murder on the basis of several unvalidated forensics techniques, chief among them an unusual type of fiber analysis. When police couldn’t find any other evidence linking him to the crime, they turned to an imprint made in the dirt on Barnes’s truck. An analyst testified that the imprint and fabric of the victim’s jeans (at right) made a similar pattern. The prosecution then called a manufacturers’ representative to the stand to testify that these jeans were unusual—as few as 200 pairs had been sold in the county that year. Jurors were convinced the imprint must have been made by the victim’s jeans. Barnes served almost 20 years of a 25-year-to-life sentence before he was exonerated by DNA. Here he hugs his sister after being released from prison in 2008.

Bite Mark Matching

Darryl Webb / East Valley Tribune-AP (left); Alex Garcia / KRT-Newscom

In 1991, an Arizona bartender was found dead in the bar where she worked, with bite marks to her breast and neck. During suspect Ray Krone‘s trial, an analyst testified that the impressions of Krone’s teeth matched the bite marks in the victim. Krone (above, left) was sentenced to death, and spent more than a decade in prison before he was exonerated by DNA and released in 2002.

Bite-mark comparison assumes that the alignment of every person’s teeth is unique, and therefore that each of us would leave a different impression when biting skin (right). This assumption has never been proven. This method of forensics has lately fallen out of favor, because bite marks usually include traces of saliva, making it a much more reliable forensic test available: DNA.

Fingerprint Analysis

Courtesy of Chris Bily / West Virginia University Forensic Science Initiative (top); Alex Garcia / KRT-Newscom

In this image, the print on the left—a whorl pattern—was left in blood at a crime scene. The print was then enhanced with dye to make it easier to see (above center). An analyst compared the enhanced print to another print of an identified suspect and found several matching characteristics, marked (at right above) with colored arrows.

It sounds like a slam-dunk match, but the science isn’t so clear. Even the same person touching the same surface with the same finger will leave a slightly different print each time. Once a print is found, scientists have to perform several subjective measures in determining if the print is a match. Stephan Cowans, pictured here in Boston, was convicted of shooting a police officer in 1997. At Cowans’ trial, an expert testified that Cowans’ thumb print matched a print one left by the shooter. Later, after DNA exonerated Cowans, a re-examination revealed that the print did not in fact match Cowans’—and at least one examiner knew it when he testified otherwise. As a result, the Boston Police Department’s latent fingerprint unit was closed, and two of the fingerprint examiners who testified at Cowans’ trial were brought before a grand jury. Neither examiner was indicted. Cowans was found shot dead in his home in 2007.

Arson Investigation

Courtesy of John Lentini; Chicago Tribune-Landov

Cameron Todd Willingham (pictured above with his daughter Amber above) was convicted of homicide when arson investigators determined that the 1991 fire that killed his three children was intentionally set. But his case came under scrutiny from noted fire experts like John Lentini, who said the police relied on outdated science and “mythological indicators,” a term Lentini uses to describe the mixture of facts, falsehoods, and mistakes used by many police investigators. For instance, the investigators argued that the white spots on the floor of his home (above, left) were signs of an accelerant, but Lentini argues those were just patches of floor covered by toys, blankets, or rugs. Willingham’s story was told in depth in the New Yorker after his death, and in 2010,  a four-person panel in Texas found that while faulty science may have played a role in the conviction, the investigators involved did not act negligently.

Ballistics Matching

Carlos Osorio / AP (top); Courtesy of Max Houck (bottom left); Richard Ellis / Getty Images

The Detroit Police crime lab was shuttered in 2008 when an audit discovered that 10 percent of its ballistics cases involved major errors such as misidentifications. (Top, prosecutor Kym Worthy testifies in Detroit City Counsel regarding the lab’s shortcomings). The audit was spurred by a 2008 pleaded case in which ballistics reports which supposedly showed that 42 bullets from the crime scene were all fired from the same weapon; later tests revealed that the bullets were from 2 different guns.

Ballistics experts often fire a bullet from a gun they suspect was used in a crime, then try to match the grooves, striations and markings on that bullet to the bullet – or bullet fragment – found at the crime scene (at right are the images of two bullets considered a match to the same gun; at left are the tools used to measure and mark evidence). So far, however, there’s no scientific evidence to validate the claim that no two guns fire the same way.  The National Academy of Science agrees that toolmark analysis makes it possible to isolate the manufacturer or model of a gun that fired a particular bullet, but that there is not enough data to say how common various imperfections in the barrel of a gun.

DNA Testing

Dan McCoy / Science Faction-Corbis (left); Michael Stravato / AP

DNA testing is certainly not foolproof–nothing is–but more common than errors in the lab are errors in how results are described to juries. In the case of Gilbert Alejandro, a forensic analyst told the jury that DNA testing matched Alejandro; in fact, the analyst (who was later implicated in dozens of other cases of fraud), had not even performed DNA testing at the time of Alejandro’s trial. Later DNA tests definitively excluded Alejandro. At Josiah Sutton’s trial, a crime lab employee testified that DNA found on the victim was an exact match with Sutton (pictured above); actually, 1 in 16 black men share that particular profile. Both men have since been exonerated.

Reprint:  When Forensics Wrongly Convicts | Newsweek

 

Thousands Rally in Pakistan Over Blasphemy Law–By Muhammad Mansoor| AFP

KARACHI (AFP) – More than 50,000 people rallied in Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi on Sunday, police said, against the controversial reform of a blasphemy law that was behind the killing of a senior politician.

Religious groups blocked a main thoroughfare in Karachi’s teeming metropolis holding banners in support of the police commando who shot dead Punjab governor Salman Taseer on Tuesday over his views favouring an amendment of the law.

Taseer had called for reform of the blasphemy law that was recently used to sentence a Christian woman to death. But his outspoken liberal stance offended the country’s increasingly powerful conservative religious base.

“Mumtaz Qadri is not a murderer, he is a hero,” said one banner in the national Urdu language in support of the man who carried out Pakistan’s most high-profile political killing in three years.

“We salute the courage of Qadri,” said another.

Religious students filled the street wearing scarves and turbans inscribed with “Allah-o-Akbar” and bellowing slogans in favour of holy war.

Senior police official Mohammad Ashfaq put the overall number of protesters at more than 50,000. Another senior police official confirmed the number and said some 3,000 police officers were guarding the event, which forced the closure of businesses and roads in the area and ended after dusk without violence.

Excerpt, read entire article: Thousands Rally Over Blasphemy Law in Pakistan –By Muhammad Mansoor | AFP

Thousands Rally in Pakistan Over Blasphemy Law| Al Jazeera English (Video)

Related: Pakistan Profile: Salman Taseer, Governor of Punjab (Video)

Salman Taseer: An Act of True Moral Heroism – By Chris Hayes | The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC Video)

 

Inside Death Row & Solitary Confinement | National Geographic

Inside Death Row examines the lives of inmates on death row in Huntsville, Texas. Discovery Explorer interviews inmates, family members, and prison officials. Solitary Confinement looks at the science of solitary confinement and discovers what it means to be absolutely alone. Both videos are full length.

National Geographic Explorer