Author Video:

Author Introduction: Chapter 11

Author Video: Victim Impact Statements

 

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Video 1: Cruel and Unusual Punishment

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Juwan Wickware wasn't the shooter. But he is one of more than 2,500 people nationwide who will grow from a teenager to an adult to an elderly person behind bars, only leaving prison once they've died. In yet another illogical and cruel U.S. criminal justice policy, our country has the distinction of being the only in the world that still sentences people to life without the possibility of parole for crimes committed before their 18th birthdays.

 

Video 2: Attica Correctional Facility

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On September 9, 1971 1,500 prisoners took over Attica Prison in upstate New York to protest conditions. Fourty-three hostages were taken. The prison was held for four days. Thirty-nine men died from police gunshot wounds in the retaking of Attica: 10 hostages and 29 inmates. Footage includes "Bloody Monday" September 13, 1971.

 

Video 3: Global punishment

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Over 30 years ago, the UN Convention Against Torture came into being. The Convention was groundbreaking: it offered a set of concrete steps to make the global ban on torture a reality, by establishing a set of measures, enshrined in law and specifically designed to prevent torture, punish perpetrators and ensure justice and redress to victims. These measures intend not only to end torture and other ill-treatment nationally, but also to ensure that no-one is deported across borders to be tortured, and that there is no safe haven for perpetrators.

Since 1984, 155 states have ratified the UN Convention Against Torture, 142 of which are researched by Amnesty International. In 2014, Amnesty International observed at least 79 of these still torturing -- more than half the states party to the Convention that the organisation reports on. A further 40 UN Member States haven't adopted the Convention, although the global legal ban on torture binds them too. In some of these countries torture is routine and systematic. In others, Amnesty International has only documented isolated and exceptional cases. The organization finds even one case of torture or other ill-treatment totally unacceptable.

 

Video 4: Victim impact statements

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A victim impact statement is a written or oral statement made as part of the judicial legal process, which allows crime victims the opportunity to speak during the sentencing of their attacker or at subsequent parole hearings. In some instances, videotaped statements are permitted.

 

Video 5: Innocence Project

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Jonathan Barr. Marvin Anderson. Randy Mills. Benny Starks. Four men represented by the Innocence Project and exonerated by DNA evidence tell their uplifting stories about freedom from wrongful conviction.