Nov. 2020 Ballot Endorsement: No on 20
Many Californians don’t know that our state Constitution requires that any voter initiative have a single subject: “An initiative measure embracing more than one subject may not be submitted to
Nov. 2020 Ballot Endorsement: Yes on 17
Currently, the California Constitution, in Article II, Section 4, provides that “The Legislature shall. . . provide for the disqualification of electors while . . . imprisoned or on parole
Release Party for Yesterday’s Monsters
Hi, Dear Readers! My new book Yesterday’s Monsters: The Manson Family Cases and the Illusion of Parole is out from UC Press and I am inviting you to celebrate! When:
The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
Theodore R. Davis’ illustration of Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial in the Senate, published in Harper’s Weekly. Much has been made in the last couple of days of Nixon and Clinton
Politics and Penality
In addition to being engrossed in my animal rights/criminal justice project, I have the happy and challenging obligation of writing an encyclopedia entry for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology
Facing Criminal Charges to Save Animals, Part V: The Meaning of Doing Time for the Animals
Part IPart IIPart IIIPart IV There are lots of interesting cases involving animal welfare, animal rights, and the complicated terrain of animal personhood. But what is unique to the criminal
Madam Secretary and How Things Could Be: Democracts, What Is your Criminal Justice Agenda?
The wonderful CBS series Madam Secretary, whose fifth season is out, features Téa Leoni as Elizabeth McCord, a Secretary of State in a parallel universe in which responsible adults with
More Progressive Punitivism, the Manafort Edition: Conservatives, Maoists, and the SCUM Manifesto
This morning on Twitter, Shaun King took on the schadenfreude festival that surrounded the reports that Paul Manafort–perhaps the shrewdest collaborator with the Russians in the context of the 2016
Elizabeth Warren’s Laudable Example
The Washington Post is being justly criticized for its ridiculous so-called exposé of Elizabeth Warren earning reasonable attorney/consultant fees for her legal work. There is a debate about whether this
Mueller Report, Redux
Yesterday I read the Mueller Report in preparation for a few TV appearances and created a Twitter thread condensing the entire report into about 180 tweets. Many people emailed and