An Equal Justice Initiative analysis shows how the 50^th Anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Gideon decision demonstrates ongoing problems in indigent defense.  Only 24 states have public defender systems and too often are hampered by inadequate funding and “crippling caseloads” for public defenders.  Just last year, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Maples v Alabama, criticized Alabama’s failure to provide legal assistance to death row inmates, as too many must rely upon volunteers or no defense at all during the post-conviction process. 

The 50th Anniversary of the Letter from Birmingham Jail

By Alex Mikulich, Ph.D.

In an extraordinary, perhaps definitive occasion of the 50th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail on April 15, 2013, ordained leaders of Evangelical, Pentecostal, Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox traditions signed a new response to that classic Letter.

In a new report, the Insight Center for Community Economic Development finds that predatory payday loans in 33 states cost the American economy $774 million in 2011 resulting in the loss of more than 14,000 jobs.  These costs, plus the an increase in Chapter 13 bankruptcies linked to payday usage, brought the total loss to nearly 1 billion dollars. 

Pope Benedict’s Teaching on the Environment

by Fr. Fred Kammer, S.J.

New Estimates of Unauthorized Immigrants in the U.S.

by Sue Weishar, Ph.D.

As the movement for comprehensive immigration gains momentum, it is important for advocates to have the most accurate data possible on the number of unauthorized immigrants in their respective states and the U.S as a whole. A new report published in the International Migration Review, by Robert Warren and John Robert Warren, provides such information.

The Alliance for Responsible Lending in Alabama (ARLA), a large coalition advocating fair lending policies, gathered on February 28 at the state house in Montgomery to urge legislators to cap payday loans at 36% and to curtail automobile title lending.
 

On February 27, 2013 the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments regarding Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the key provision that requires states with a history of denying minority rights to gain approval of the Department of Justice or Federal Court prior to making any changes in voting procedures.
 

Time to End the Death Penalty

by Alex Mikulich, Ph.D.

On February 7, 2013 Federal District Judge James Brady indefinitely stayed the execution of Christopher Sepulvado because the state of Louisiana failed to provide details of its new execution protocol.  The protocol concerns who administers it, what drugs are utilized, and how the drugs work.  Whether or not the protocol sustains the prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment” in the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution stands at issue.

Executing a Life and Human Dignity

By Alex Mikulich Ph.D.

DeSoto District Judge Robert Burgess set an execution date for Christopher Sepulvado for Ash Wednesday, February 13, 2013. Sepulvado, 69, has served twenty years on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. 

A DeSoto Parish jury imposed the death penalty on Sepulvado in 1993 for the March 8, 1992 death of his stepson Wesley Allen Mercer, age 6.  Court documents describe the torture the preschooler endured for days leading to his death.

…and More Coming Horrors

by Fred Kammer, SJ

While major parts of the presidential campaign focused on the economy, debt, and taxes—individual and corporate—the “fiscal cliff tax deal” reached on January 2nd resolved none of them.  The new revenue raised is far from adequate to end the deficits and reduce the debt, the automatic spending cuts called “sequestration” have only been deferred for sixty days, and the inequalities of the tax code remain largely in place.  In fact, the deal simply sets up three more “fiscal cliffs” in the next quarter.