Introducing the Tennessee Justice Newsladder
By John Terzano
April 28, 2008
I’ve been engaged in social justice advocacy for more than 25 years. In that time, I’ve seen how important a fair and accurate criminal justice system is to our society. When crimes are committed, our system should determine the truth. Unfortunately, time and time again, the system gets it wrong.
Earlier this month, Glen Chapman of North Carolina became the 128th prisoner on death row to be released since 1972. The courts found that detectives committed perjury at Chatman’s trial and withheld potential evidence of his innocence from his defense attorneys. The forensic evidence was so bad that one of the two homicides pinned on Chapman may in fact have been a drug overdose. Chatman, who spent 14 years behind bars, was also a victim of bad defense lawyering.
Chapman’s exoneration doesn’t prove the system works. Just the opposite: It shows how a broken system produces spectacular failures that are bad for defendants and victims alike. That’s why I founded The Justice Project, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing fairness and accuracy in the criminal justice system.
A large part of our work involves educating citizens and criminal justice stakeholders about the serious problems and common-sense solutions in a way that creates an environment for reform. People need to know that these problems are not rare or isolated incidents. Stories like the one mentioned above are reported every day around the country, but all too often they reach a limited audience or wind up lost in the shuffle of other news coverage.
This is why we have helped launch The Tennessee Justice NewsLadder a new web site designed to make staying on top of developments in criminal justice reform easier. The Tennessee Justice NewsLadder pulls together daily news articles, blog posts, videos and other media so that real-time information is readily accessible with the click of a mouse. On The Tennessee Justice NewsLadder, you’ll find information about the problems of unreliable witness identification, false confessions, junk forensic science and more. You’ll also find stories of people taking on the difficult work of making the system better.
You can play an important role in making the Justice NewsLadders an essential tool for criminal justice reform. The format allows anyone who signs up to post a link, recommend a link, comment on a story and raise the profile of a story by voting it up the ladder. The more people join and the more information they post to the NewsLadder, the better informed we all will be.
Access to information is essential to understanding the issues and being able to take action to create a more just and humane world. We hope The Tennessee Justice NewsLadder will help more people understand not only the challenges we face, but also the actions we need to take to achieve a more just and accurate criminal justice system.
John F. Terzano is President of The Justice Project, a nonpartisan organization that works to increase fairness and accuracy in the criminal justice system, with a focus on the capital punishment system. The blog was originally published on The Huffington Post to introduce The Justice NewsLadder.
Uneven playing field creates injustice for indigent in Tennessee
As published in The Tennessean, July 1, 2007
Op/Ed By BILL REDICK and BRADLEY MacLEAN
As Independence Day approaches, Americans are reminded of their freedom, liberty, constitutional rights and civic responsibilities. Our criminal justice system plays a vital role in protecting these values, ensuring that justice — not power, money or influence — prevails for all. Read More »
Saved from Death Row, he knows the importance of DNA
The Tennessean, OP/ED
By Kirk Bloodsworth
As the first death row inmate exonerated by DNA, I know first-hand the importance of testing all available evidence in a case, especially when someone’s life is at stake. Tennessee inmate Sedley Alley currently sits on death row awaiting execution while potentially exculpatory evidence in his case remains untested.
Prosecutors in the case have been fighting tooth and nail to ensure that Alley is not granted access to available DNA evidence, which begs the question: What does the state have to fear by allowing the testing to go forward? I would answer that the state has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Read More »
For indigent defendants, equal justice requires competent attorneys
The Tennessean, Op-Ed
By Bill Redick
April 24, 2006 –Tennessee faces a crisis which undermines the right of our citizens to have equal access to effective legal representation if they cannot afford counsel. Critically, the overwhelming majority of criminal defendants in Tennessee are indigent and must rely on the state to provide them with legal counsel. The Tennessee Supreme Court is charged with the responsibility to supervise the judicial system and to ensure that all citizens are treated equally under the law. Read More »
Do the State’s Laws Demand Respect?
In 399 BC, a jury in Athens sentenced Socrates to death for crimes against the state. A discussion of the role of law and the source of its authority preceded one of the most notable cases of state execution in world history.
That discussion remains relevant whenever the state issues a law that attracts reasoned and principled dissent, such as the Tennessee law that sanctions the death penalty. Read More »
