We are freedom’s watchdog, working in courts, legislatures and communities
to defend the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people by the
Constitution of the United States and the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
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As of this month, 133 death row inmates have been exonerated in the last 30 years. Many of us understand the reasons why innocent people are convicted of crimes they did not commit, however some researchers theorize that a defendant in a capital case may be more likely to be wrongly convicted for several reasons.
Often the death penalty is a politicized subject that is frequently used in campaigns for elected officials like local judges. By sentencing more people to death they can be seen as, “tough on crime”.
Also there can also be increased pressure on law enforcement officials to solve homicides quickly because of the high emotions that surround these cases. This increased pressure can lead to misconduct or erroneous mistakes by the investigators. Additionally, an undue reliance upon evidence whose reliability is inherently suspect - such as suggestive eyewitness identifications, testimony of jailhouse informants and coerced confessions – also contribute to the wrongful convictions of innocent people while the actual criminals remain free.
Though 133 people have been exonerated and released from death row, it is impossible to know how many people have been executed who were also innocent because courts generally do not entertain claims of innocence after the defendant is dead. There are stories like Joseph O’Dell’s where new DNA evidence has thrown considerable doubt onto his murder and rape conviction. In fact, when reviewing his conviction, three Supreme Court justices said they had doubts about O’Dell’s guilt; without the blood evidence there was little linking him to the crime. O’Dell asked the state to conduct new DNA tests and they refused, he was executed in 1997.
Hear the story of a potentially innocent man currently on death row in the video below
Nine months after an employee at a McDonald’s restaurant in downtown Louisville called a group of gay customers a series of anti-gay slurs, the American Civil Liberties Union announced today that McDonald’s has agreed to a cash settlement and diversity training for management at 30 of its Louisville-area restaurants.
Ryan Marlatt, Teddy Eggers, and three other friends had stopped for lunch at a McDonald’s restaurant on East Market Street on July 26, 2008 while visiting Louisville for the weekend. While they waited for their food to be prepared, an employee behind the counter referred to them as “faggots” to another employee. When Marlatt and Eggers objected to the slur and asked to speak with a manager, the employee who had called them “faggots” started arguing with them, repeatedly calling them “faggots” in front of other customers and calling one of them a “cocksucker” and “bitch.”
“The reason we made such a big deal out of this to begin with was because we didn’t want it happening to anyone else, so I’m very glad McDonald’s management is going to be having these trainings,” said Eggers of Indianapolis, Indiana. “We were hurt and upset, but at least we’re adults and can handle being called names. We hated thinking that this kind of harassment might also happen to someone young and vulnerable who would really take it to heart.”
The supervisor on duty refused to refund the group’s purchase, so Marlatt attempted several times in the following weeks to contact both the general manager of the McDonald’s and the corporate offices, with no results. Louisville law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, so the ACLU filed a complaint in September on behalf of Marlatt and Eggers with the Louisville Human Relations Commission. In October, representatives of a variety of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender groups as well as other civil rights organizations protested at the downtown Louisville McDonald’s where the incident took place.
“We’re really grateful to the Louisville Metro Human Relations Commission for its investigation, as well as to our friends at the Fairness Campaign, and commonGround at the University of Louisville, for keeping the pressure on McDonald’s to do the right thing,” said Michael Aldridge, Executive Director of the ACLU of Kentucky. “While we’re fortunate to have a law banning sexual orientation discrimination in Louisville, this goes to show that it’s still important to speak out and do something about it when your rights are violated.”
View a video of Marlatt and Eggers telling the story of what happened to them as well as their complaint to the Human Relations Commission at Marlatt & Eggers video
By Roger Alford
Associated Press
FRANKFORT — The Kentucky Supreme Court will decide whether a Baptist university can use $11 million awarded by state lawmakers three years ago to open a pharmacy school.
Lawyers are working under a June deadline to file written arguments. Justices could decide the case by the end of the year.
The case, which involves the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, is being watched closely by advocates for other church-affiliated schools that have largely been excluded in the past from state funding for construction projects.
A trial judge ruled last year that the appropriation to the Baptist university violates the state constitution. The university's attorneys appealed directly to the Supreme Court, skipping the Court of Appeals, in hopes of expediting a decision.
American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky
