Death penalty
California’s longest serving death-row prisoner on pain and Native identity
August 1, 2022As the Monache and Cherokee 63-year-old awaits a new hearing for a 1978 murder he denies committing, Douglas Ray Stankewitz shares the cultural tools and memories he depends on to stay alive.
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Texas prosecutor may temporarily spare Melissa Lucio, the woman many believe is innocent
April 18, 2022Federal judges, five jurors who convicted her, and a roster of family, politicians, and celebrities believe there are substantive doubts about whether the death of Lucio’s 2-year-old daughter was even a murder.
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Execution cruelty hidden by Trump officials to speed up death sentences
February 17, 2021Questions are being raised about whether federal officials misled courts to ensure the executions scheduled from July to mid-January were done before death penalty opponent Joe Biden became president.
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‘Clemency’: Dead woman walking, a capital film on capital punishment
November 27, 2019Alfre Woodard, one of our elder stateswomen of the acting profession, delivers a powerhouse of a performance as the prison warden, Bernardine Williams, Clemency’s main character.
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‘In the Penal Colony’: A Philip Glass opera based on Franz Kafka
April 30, 2019LONG BEACH, Calif.—Two of the world’s most popular and introspective artists have paired up after almost four-score years to create a mesmerizing piece of stage theatre that operagoers will not soon forget. Southern California is currently...
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