Brooklyn Law School ACLU

On Oct. 11, the BLS ACLU and the Fed Soc went head to head over marijuana decriminalization. Over a hundred students turned out, and by the end, many joined in the discussion. Thank you to everyone for your hard work.

BLS ACLU Debaters: Adam Bird, Brian Zapert
Debate Co-Chairs: David Goldberg, Ryan Merola

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.

Congratulations to the new elected BLS-ACLU e-board for the 2010-2011 academic year:
Co-chair: Robert McRae
Treasurer: Bowen Ranney
Debate co-chair: Raphael Ruttenberg

The following positions will be elected in the fall semester:
Secretary
Debate co-chair
Webmaster
Social Chair

Thank you everyone for the fantastic year.  We would like to specially thank the student debaters, Amanda Melnick, Lillian Tan, Fanny Lam, and Rob McRae.  Both the torture accountability panel (with Prof. Herman moderating) and the marriage equality panel (with Prof. Tebbe moderating)  were a rousing success.  Prof. Herman gave a talk about President Obama’s record on civil liberties, and Profs. Gora and Zipkin spoke about the Citizens United case.  Many students attended the military recruitment training given by NYCLU, and we hope to continue this pro bono project in the coming year.  Race and the Law Conference, Student Day Against the Death Penalty, and the screening of American Violet were also fantastic events.

We hope that the next year will be even better.  If any ACLU chapter member has any ideas about what the chapter should be doing, please do not hesitate to reach out to the e-board.

-BLS-ACLU e-board

I would like to thank everyone who attended our two recent events relating to torture accountability: the Torture Panel hosted by Susan Herman and the Torture Accountability Student Debate.

For those who are interested, I am attaching a link to a New York Review of Books article that is a thorough account of the torture accountability issue. Please take some time to read it, as it is both a good coda to our recent events, and an excellent summation if you were not able to attend.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23114

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In light of Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the interrogation of prisoners held by the CIA, torture accountability is one of the most ethically contentious and politically controversial legal issues facing this country. A panel of expert speakers explored various facets of the debate and presented their opinions on what should be done in the future about holding the advocates of torture responsible. The BLS-ACLU was honored to host Katherine Gallagher (Center for Constitutional Rights), Joanne Mariner (Human Rights Watch), Ben Wizner (American Civil Liberties Union).  Prof. Susan Herman (President, ACLU) moderated the panel discussion.