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Law and Disorder
Law and Disorder is a weekly, independent radio program airing on several stations across the United States. Law and Disorder gives listeners access to rare legal perspectives on issues concerning civil liberties, privacy, right to dissent and the horrendous practices of torture exercised by the US government.
Federal Death Penalty Analysis Under President Trump
Donald Trump is on a killing spree, according to an article by noted death penalty expert Austin Sarat in the Guardian. After a 17-year hiatus, Attorney General William Barr restarted the federal death penalty by executing Daniel Lewis Lee on July 14, 2020, even though Lee’s ringleader accomplice received life in prison. Thus far the administration has put ten persons to death with three more executions on the docket in the days before Joe Biden’s inauguration. A new DOJ rule allows the US to use more methods for executions, including firing squads, gas, and electrocution.
William Barr says his justice department is simply upholding existing law. But the timing of the executions is just weeks before Joe Biden takes office, and the uptick in numbers is a departure in past practice. After the Supreme Court reinstated the federal death penalty in 1988, federal executions have been rare.
Guest – Attorney Marc Bookman, an internationally recognized expert in the field of capital litigation. Marc is the Co-Founder and the current executive director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation. From 1993 to 2010, he served in the Homicide Unit of the Defender Association of Philadelphia. He has taught at countless death penalty conferences and hands-on trainings across the nation. Marc has published widely on various aspects of capital jurisprudence. He earned his BA from the University of Pennsylvania, and his JD from the University of North Carolina.
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Technology and Activism
During the Trump administration the United States has witnessed an uptick in dissent and activism after a rash of attacks on social services and human rights. As weve seen throughout history, a groundswell of youth activism has led the way in fighting for climate protection, racial justice, gun control, and many other critical issues. Driving this increase in activism is accessibility and advancement of specific technologies that help people use mass communication tools more easily and affordably.
At the same time, in the past four years Donald Trump installed a new FCC head with ties to big tech. One of the first orders of business was to get rid of net neutrality”the principle that Internet providers treat all users equally. That means that big tech cant slow down a student or community blog while affording wealthier companies and advertisers with high speed service. Trump has also banned TikTok and WeChat, and his Commerce Department added the Chinese tech giant Huawei to its entity list, which curbed the companys ability to use American-origin chips, software and other technology.
During the Covid pandemic, the shift to online learning and online physicians appointment has witnessed a dramatic increase in cyberattacks which pose a threat to the overall security of our virtual world.
Guest – Ken Montenegro, Technology Director at the Center of Constitutional Right. Before he was the Information Technology Director at Asian Americans Advancing Justice in Los Angeles. He is a long-time activist with grassroots communities and movements, in particular around immigration and racist policing. Montenegro is also the current Executive Vice President of the National Lawyers Guild. Hes a co-founder of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition and one of the founding members of the Radical Connections Network.
