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Stephen Cooper

Ducking and dodging death penalty accountability in Alabama

Continuing its odious tradition of ducking and dodging transparency and accountability in how the state puts its prisoners to death – (purportedly) in the name of the people – the beleaguered Alabama Office of the Attorney General has asserted in a new convoluted, churlish, and utterly cockamamie federal court filing: “[W]hile this Court found that there … Continued
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June 8, 2018
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Newsflash: Alabama has been torturing poor people for a long time

By Stephen Cooper Former D.C. Public Defender If you have a high-profile lawyer with powerful friends and you’re tortured while on death row in Alabama, everyone in the nation not only knows about it—overwhelmingly, especially in liberal, progressive, civilized circles of thought and news—they’re righteously appalled. But poor death row inmates in Alabama (which overwhelmingly … Continued
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March 6, 2018
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Call lethal injection the vile torture it is

By Stephen Cooper Contributed In a New Year’s Eve display of liberal newspaper death penalty abolition harmony – buoyed by the release of the Death Penalty Information Center’s (DPIC) annual report evidencing another year in the long-observable trend of capital punishment’s disuse and disfavor in America – both the Washington Post and New York Times’ … Continued
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January 9, 2018
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Alabama’s Last Execution Was An Atrocity

By Stephen Cooper Alabama Political Reporter The last time Alabama played God, executing death row inmate Christopher Brooks by lethal injection on January 21, 2016, The Montgomery Advertiser and al.com published a column of mine in which I wrote: “Initial reports out of Alabama are that the execution went as ‘smoothly’ as killing a reasonably … Continued
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October 28, 2016
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Alabama’s Holman Prison is Hell on Earth

By Stephen Cooper Since opening its doors on December 15, 1969, Alabama’s William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, has been a bastion of violence, fear, pain and baleful human suffering. Built on a shoestring budget of five million dollars during Governor Lurleen Wallace’s administration, it took just five years for Holman prison’s perpetually … Continued
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October 24, 2016
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Bentley’s Op-Ed Proves He’s Delusional

By Stephen Cooper In an op-ed for al.com dated May 9, 2016, Governor Robert Bentley declares he has no “intention of being a caretaker governor.” Bad news for Bentley: His insistence that he won’t to be relegated to the sidelines during the remainder of his time in office as a “caretaker” governor is not only … Continued
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May 11, 2016
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Eight $100 million ideas for prison reform in Alabama

By Stephen Cooper Instead of wrapping an $800 million ($1.5 billion over 30 years) albatross around the necks of Alabamians to build four new “super-max” style prisons, here are eight $100 million dollar ideas, each of which, I respectfully submit, are more efficient and morally sound ways to tackle Alabama’s prison problems: 1. Write a … Continued
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May 4, 2016
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Clemency in Alabama is a Farce

By Stephen Cooper In about two weeks, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley — himself a desperate cartoonish candidate for clemency from the people of Alabama (who he has so profoundly betrayed) — will be the sole arbiter of clemency for Mr. Vernon Madison, an African-American death row inmate; On May 12, Mr. Madison is scheduled to … Continued
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April 25, 2016