MissNotMaam

Assistant Federal Defender, Capital Habeas Unit, Federal Community Defender for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Former Philly public defender.

[Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta @malcolmkenyatta]

I haven’t felt this good since the Eagles won the Super Bowl.

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

NEW: Pope Leo XIV is set to become the first sitting pontiff in the Catholic Church’s two-thousand-year history to vote in a secular election.

Leo requested an Illinois mail ballot on Oct. 3, and it was sent to his brother John’s home in New Lenox, Ill.

John Prevost visited the pope at the Vatican on Wednesday and may now be carrying the ballot back to the Will County clerk by hand. https://t.co/EV7qGIcZRt

[David French @DavidAFrench]

Awesome answer.

[Robert Dunham @RDunhamDP]

“Killing someone is not dignified in any way, but it must be done with the most dignity possible,” former Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel says. “Where it is legal, how it is done says more about society than anything else.”

To avoid a failed execution, Wetzel strictly followed the law. ... “I was not going to break the law and find the required drugs from an unauthorized source in order to execute someone for breaking the law,” Wetzel says.

Wetzel commented on the inherent brutality of the death penalty. “That’s the thing. Everyone is traumatized — families, witnesses to the crime, court workers and corrections officers, anyone associated with the execution — from the moment of the murder to the very end.”
https://t.co/GaavNML1F1 @padp_org @Atlantic_Ctr @uscedp @Journey0fHope @CCATDP @amnesty @WCADP @AssoECPM @DeathPenaltyAct

[Colin Miller @EvidenceProf]

Great news! Alabama governor @kayiveyforgov has commuted the death sentence of #ToforestJohnson, who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of William G. Hardy based on the testimony of a single earwitness: https://t.co/DoL5JFqdsb

[Beth Shelburne @bshelburne]

TOFOREST JOHNSON'S DEATH SENTENCE HAS BEEN COMMUTED! Gov. Kay Ivey grants clemency in long-running wrongful conviction. I am sobbing with gratitude and relief.
More work to do, but this is a victory for truth and justice. Thank you, God!!!!!!!!!!

[Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias]

Not to Jewsplain, but I think conservatives who are unhappy with the Pope’s ideas on immigration & the death penalty and who believe their own reading of the Bible supports different views should look into Protestantism.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person. The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment: effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens while at the same time do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption. #NoDeathPenalty

[Amnesty International USA @amnestyusa]

Tennessee’s attempted, but botched, execution of Christa Pike was an extreme display of cruelty and the latest reminder that the death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment.  Gov. Lee must grant all those on death row clemency and commute their sentences. https://t.co/lhUvS3OcV5

[Chris “Law Dork” Geidner @chrisgeidner]

NEW: Statement from Christa Pike's lawyers:

”Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution. ... Christa is being treated at a nearby hospital. We have not been informed as to her condition.”

https://t.co/DOjWCwaWBv

[MissNotMaam @AFish72]

“"From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death. ... I feel morally and intellectually obligated simply to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed." — Callins v. Collins (1994)

[CNN @CNN]

Tennessee officials were unable to put Christa Gail Pike to death for a 1995 murder Wednesday, media witnesses said. Her lawyers filed an emergency motion late Wednesday to the US Supreme Court seeking to immediately halt and stay the execution, saying she was in "unnecessary agony." https://t.co/kp2digzgIr

[MissNotMaam @AFish72]

Awful.

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

Breaking news: The Supreme Court said Tennessee can move forward with the execution of 50-year-old Christa Pike.

The decision appears to extinguish the last possible reprieve for Pike, who as an 18-year-old helped carry out the murder of Colleen Slemmer in 1995. https://t.co/JITU7CnPG9

[Laura Burstein @LauraBurstein1]

BRKG: Despite agreement of all parties, sharply divided Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejects trial court’s finding of constitutional error in #MelissaLucio's case. Trial court had previously found her "actually innocent”. Read @innocence atty stmt here: https://t.co/j9QkAIfDe7

[MissNotMaam @AFish72]

@LauraBurstein1 @innocence Horrible injustice. Shocking decision.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Pure happiness

[Christopher Hale @ChristopherHale]

NEW: Every week, a Philadelphia nun drives to the immigration court in Harlingen, Texas, to sit beside unaccompanied children, some as young as four, who face a deportation judge with no lawyer and no parent.

This week, an undocumented migrant who is facing imminent deportation called Sister Rose Kuhn his “angel.”

This comes as Catholics across the nation, inspired by Pope Leo XIV, are standing up to the White House’s immigration policies.

[Robert Dunham @RDunhamDP]

Before Tennessee executes Christa Pike, read the whole story. https://t.co/TFQjEEdgez @Tennessean @ChildArise1 @nationalnow @RAINN @NCAforCACs @uscedp #deathpenalty

[MissNotMaam @AFish72]

@BulwarkOnline @SarahLongwell25 I literally bought your book a couple of days ago to support this mission. I prefer fiction so I may not read the book, but I support you Sarah Longwell!

[Catholic Mobilizing Network @CMNEndtheDP]

For the executioners, Lord, turn their faces towards you
For the prison staff, have them encounter #HaroldLucas with tenderness
For witnesses and the media, give them resolve and help them to show the truth
For those who can stop executions in Florida, Jesus give them the courage to do so.

[Damien Echols @damienechols]

I walked off of death row exactly 15 years ago this morning. Thank you. It wouldn’t have happened without you.

One of the biggest lessons I learned is that there will be times when every piece of available evidence tells you that something is impossible. That the door is closed, and the odds are against you. You can’t see a way forward. But not being able to see a way through is not the same thing as there being no way through. We have a habit of treating our present circumstances as if they were permanent, when life is constantly changing. Sometimes the only thing required of you is to stay on your feet long enough for something you cannot yet see to become possible.

You don’t need to know how the story ends. You only need to deal with what is directly in front of you and refuse to surrender your will to circumstances. Take the next step. Then take another. There will be times when continuing seems irrational, when nothing appears to be working and there is no evidence that it ever will. Keep going anyway. An impossible situation only becomes a final one when YOU decide there are no more moves to make.