Affiliate News
The ACLU of Oklahoma praises Henry for clemency grant
7.30.08
Press Release
7/30/08
Oklahoma City, OK — The American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma’s Anti-Death Penalty Project (ADPP) commends Governor Brad Henry for granting clemency to Kevin Young. Young was sentenced to die in Oklahoma County for the murder of Joseph Sutton in May of 1996. The Pardon and Parole Board recommended clemency on June 9, and on July 24, Henry bravely commuted Young’s death sentence to life without parole. It is only his second time to grant clemency since taking office. The members of the ACLU of Oklahoma’s ADPP believe this is a step in the right direction for abolishing the death penalty in Oklahoma.
Members of the ADPP were present when the Pardon and Parole Board made the decision to grant clemency for Young. Four jurors that originally sentenced Young to die pleaded to the Board to grant him clemency. Young’s family explained how he was an asset in their lives by teaching the children in their family that living a life of crime will lead to life in prison. Due to Oklahoma laws, Young was not able to appear in person at his hearing but was able to testify via television. He said he was truly sorry to Sutton’s family More >
JIM HIGHTOWER TO SPEAK IN TULSA AT BILL OF RIGHTS CELEBRATION
10.23.07
Jim Hightower (Photo by Paul S. Howell)
National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author Jim Hightower will visit Tulsa at a Bill of Rights Celebration hosted by the ACLU of Oklahoma on Saturday, November 10, 2007. The event will be held in the Manchester-Geneva Room of the Doubletree Hotel, 616 W. Seventh Street in downtown Tulsa. Festivities will begin with a reception at 6:30 p.m. A banquet will follow at 7:00 p.m.
Hightower broadcasts daily radio commentaries that are carried in more than 100 commercial and public stations, on the web, on Armed Forces Radio, Radio for Peace International, One World Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Each month, he publishes a populist political newsletter, “The Hightower Lowdown,” which now has more than 125,000 subscribers and is the fastest growing political publication in America. The hard-hitting Lowdown has received both the Alternative Press Award and the Independent Press Association Award for best national newsletter.
A popular public speaker who is fiery and funny, he is a populist road warrior who delivers more than 100 speeches a year to all kinds of groups. His newspaper column is carried in more than 75 independent newspapers, magazines, and other publications.
Hightower’s latest book Thieves in High Places: More >
JOANN BELL REPRESENTS ACLU AT THE UNITED NATIONS
6.23.07
UN delegates, Joann Bell second from right
Representatives from four local ACLU offices joined Lenora Lapidus of the ACLU Women’s Rights Project and Ashwini Hardikar of the ACLU Human Rights Program at the 51st Annual International Commission on the Status of Women and Girls hosted by the United Nations at its headquarters in New York. ACLU of Oklahoma Executive Director Joann Bell and ACLU personnel from Delaware, Michigan and Puerto Rico participated in sessions held March 5-7, 2007.
The goal of the sessions attended by the ACLU delegates was to insert language on conditions of incarceration into a one-page proposal on the treatment and rights of women and girls. Bell was chosen as a delegate because Oklahoma incarcerates women at a higher rate per capita than any other state in the U.S.A. Bell was also selected due to personal activism she initiated several years ago on behalf of a pregnant immigrant who was being held in the Oklahoma County Jail.
The efforts of the ACLU delegation were ultimately successful. Language protecting the rights of girls in custody was included in the violence and discrimination section of the Report issued by the Commission on the Status of Women and Girls.
The violence and discrimination section More >
