This week, Science for The People looks at the science of the ultimate criminal punishment. Pharmacologist and science writer David Kroll discusses the chemistry of the drugs used in lethal injections. They talk to law professor Samuel Gross, editor of the National Registry of Exonerations, about the rates of false convictions in death penalty cases. And they speak to Johns Hopkins University psychiatrist Dr. James Harris about the complex issues at the intersection of capital punishment and intellectual disability.
Tag: Crime
The CFAA Reform “Ask Me Anything”
A long list of characters and organizations involved in the fight to reform the outdated and overly-broad Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (CFAA) – the law used to prosecute Aaron Swartz prior to his suicide and criminalizes violating user agreements – just did an “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit. It is an interesting read:
I think there’s a growing constituency that opposes over-criminalization. CEI, Heritage, TechFreedom, Right On Crime, etc are helping to legitimize that position among conservative and libertarian Republicans, on spending and state authority grounds. The majority of Dems on House Judiciary, the committee of jurisdiction here, are in the orbit of the Progressive and/or Black Caucus, and are sympathetic to concerns about over-crim, prison industrial complex, etc. We need people who are working to legitimize those concerns/frames to keep up there work and have increased success as they do so, so we can discuss issues like the CFAA through those frames and have it resonate. – David Adam Segal, Executive Director of Demand Progress
There is an irony to people asking for fewer emails kind of spamming the thread, which will make you want to skip about 50% of the comments. Most take the form of “I really support your cause, but not enough to deal with a couple of extra emails each week.” Full credit to the reformers, as I did not see a single reply from them like, “Oh, you support us that much? THANKS!”
The Finch and Pea 