Brooklyn Law School ACLU

By Nathan Everhart, BLS ACLU Street Law Coalition Coordinator

What a difference a decade makes.

The widely talked about, delayed and protested execution of Georgia prisoner Troy Davis occurred on September 21st, 2011, despite serious and legitimate doubts about his guilt, and widespread support for clemency.  Davis was on death row for almost two decades, and his scheduled execution was delayed multiple times.  Davis’ final appeal to the Supreme Court on the day before his execution received nothing more than this response:

“Application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court denied.”

Manuel Valle sat on death row for 33 years before being executed September 28, 2011.  And despite there being less doubt about his guilt and much less public support for a stay of execution, Justice Breyer felt prompted to write a strongly worded dissent to the Supreme Court’s denial of Valle’s petition.  In his multiple-page dissent citing studies on inmate suicide rates and the “barbaric” conditions of prisons, Breyer questions the deterrent value or moral satisfaction that a community may gain from executing a man already on death row for three decades (A WSJ Law Blog article on Valle’s execution, with a link to the full opinion, can be found here).

So why the disparity?  Troy Davis’ execution was highly publicized and rigorously protested.  Yet when everyone was listening, the Supreme Court said nothing as to why his petition was not granted.  Do legitimate questions and deep concerns over guilt or innocence  get secondary treatment when they arise after conviction?  What about over a half million petitioners and many world leaders supporting a stay of execution for Davis?  Do concerns over prison conditions demand more of the Court’s attention than guilt in petitions to stay executions? Perhaps if Troy Davis had been imprisoned one more decade, or had one more 11th hour delay in execution, some member of the Supreme Court might have stood up to explain the decision and said, well, anything.

Our full e-board is now:

Co-Chair: Elizabeth Komar
Co-Chair: Ava Page
Secretary: Flo Mao
Social Chair: Benjamin Tracy
Treasurer: Amy Millican
Debate Co-Chair: Ryan Merola
Debate Co-Chair: David Goldberg
Street Law Coalition Coordinator: Nathan Everhart

Welcome aboard all!

Welcome back Civil Libertarians!

Please bear with us as we update the blog, but here’s our upcoming list of events:

1. Monday 9/12: First General Body Meeting. Please come out to vote and share any ideas for the year! 1Ls are welcome (and encouraged) to run for positions. At the moment, it looks like we’ll need a secretary, a treasurer, a co-chair, and two debate co-chairs! 1 PM in room 603. I’ll send out a more detailed description of those positions closer to the meeting. Project or speaker proposals are welcome here, or you can  email such to aclu.bls@gmail.com at any time. (Free food)

2. Friday 9/16: Religious Freedom Under Attack: The NYPD and Anti-Mosque Activities. 1 PM in the Student Lounge (Free Halal food). We are thrilled to welcome Udi Ofer, NYCLU Advocacy Director, and Cyrus McGoldrick of the Council on American-Islamic Relations – New York to speak. This event is co-sponsored by the Muslim Law Students Association.

Mr. Ofer recently published a report on this topic:
http://www.nyclu.org/publications/report-religious-freedom-under-attack-rise-of-anti-mosque-activities-new-york-state-201  And if you’ve followed the press coverage of this story, you’ve seen him quoted on CNN. Here’s the original AP article that broke this story:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iiwl_LiP3l8NwLPoSRUULZWhDPTg?docId=68e74ec21cb6481ebff3a063dc4ca2ba

Cyrus McGoldrick also raps as “the Raskol Khan” and his music has been covered in the media for its focus on tolerance. Check out his music here: http://www.myspace.com/cyruskhan

3. Monday 9/19 1PM Room 503: First Know Your Rights Street Law Pro-bono Training. Old members will recall that last year we did a few “Know Your Rights” trainings, but only referred to the military recruitment training as our pro-bono. That program has just been restructured this year. Our pro-bono will include a series of “know your rights” trainings on a variety of topics and we’ll do street education after all of them. This first training will be on students’ rights with military recruiters, as part of this NYCLU project: http://www.nyclu.org/issues/youth-and-student-rights/military-recruitment. We’ll be working closely with NLG and LALSA whenever possible to combine trainings and open outreach opportunities to all students in English and Spanish. 1Ls welcome.

Look forward to seeing you all!

Liz Komar

C0-Chair