With less than five days until the scheduled execution of Hank Skinner, a DNA testing laboratory in Phoenix, AZ has offered to test evidence that Skinner’s attorneys say will prove his innocence. Chromosomal Laboratories has told Texas Gov. Rick Perry that they will run the tests for free if Perry agrees to grant Skinner a [...]

Hank Skinner is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas on March 24th. Despite more than a decade of requests to have his DNA tested, Texas courts have denied him every step of the way. The Medill Innocence Project has even offered to pay for the testing to no avail. Skinner’s attorneys have [...]

Those of us who truly believe in limited government* tend to be simultaneously amused and irritated hearing the folks at CPAC speak of limited government as though it’s a principle they truly support. Yesterday, the Libertarian Party’s Executive Director Wes Benedict, monitoring the CPAC festivities from afar, said some of the things that many of [...]

From The Associated Press:
Crystal Mangum, 31, was arrested late Wednesday on charges including assaulting her boyfriend, Durham police said in a press release.
Durham County jail records indicate she also was charged with identity theft, communicating threats, damage to property, resisting an officer and misdemeanor child abuse. A judge ordered that she remain in jail on [...]

North Carolina has at least one criminal justice reform that all states ought to adopt: an innocence commission (particularly for states which currently have a death penalty). So far, North Carolina is the only state which has such a commission.
Greg Taylor, convicted of 1st degree murder of prostitute Jacquetta Thomas in 1993, was the [...]

Anyone who is really paying attention to the global warming debate will notice that reducing carbon emissions and wealth distribution go hand-in-hand.
Or do they?
Dick Morris and Eileen McGann wrote a very interesting article which makes very much the opposite point.
The goals of the climate change crowd are not reduction in global warming but [...]

Here’s a perfect song to complement my recent call to action to pass the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009.

System of a Down
“Prison Song”
Toxicity (2001)
Written by: Tankian, Serj;Malakian, Daron;Odadjian, Shavarsh; and Dolmayan, John
They’re trying to build a prison,
They’re trying to build a prison,
Following the rights movements
You clamped on with your iron fists,
Drugs became conveniently
Available [...]

In April of 2009, I wrote a post entitled “Reforming America’s Prison System: The Time Has Come”
A full 8 months later, the time has truly come. Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-VA) bill S.714, the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009, is scheduled to be before the Senate Judiciary Committee tomorrow.
The purpose of the bill [...]

With my busy work schedule as it is, I managed to miss the very encouraging news that Cory Maye will get a new trial!
I think it will be very interesting how his second trial unfolds now that he will have a better legal team with better expert witnesses to debunk the dubious testimony of [...]

The video that accompanies the song is simply too powerful to merely post the lyrics (below the fold) of the 3 Doors Down song “Citizen Soldier.” If you know a veteran, share this with them and tell them “thank you” for their service as citizen soldiers.

I’m actually surprised that it hasn’t occurred to me to post “Land of Confusion” for Liberty Rock sooner. This is a great song with a great message that seems perhaps even more appropriate now than its original 1986 release.
The song raises questions in my mind such as:
Who is ultimately responsible for this land [...]

Referring back to my post I wrote last week about the “perfect storm” the Obama Administration has created regarding medical marijuana, Colorado in many ways seems to be in the eye of this storm. It seems that more and more people are starting to understand the insanity of declaring war on a substance which has [...]

I’ve been looking for a reason to share this video for a long time.
Why?
Because its one of the funniest videos I’ve seen on YouTube for awhile.
Yeah, I realize that this video has little to nothing to do with the theme or purpose* of The Liberty Papers but sometimes a little humor can go [...]

In January 2008 I wrote a post calling for the repeal of the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984. As I mentioned in the post, many thousands of lives are being sacrificed because of the moral hang-ups of certain individuals who think its icky to sell organs to people who need them. How dare they. [...]

Last week’s announcement from the Obama Administration that the Justice Department would call off the dogs with regard to medical marijuana in states where legal has created a perfect storm regarding state and local regulations. Colorado Attorney General lamented that with this announcement, a “legal vacuum” has been created and was quoted in [...]

By reader’s request, “Tyrant” by Judas Priest
Judas Priest
“Tyrant”
Sad Wings of Destiny (1975)

Behold ’tis I the commander
Whose grip controls you all
Resist me not, surrender
I’ll no compassion call
(tyrant) capture of humanity
(tyrant) conqueror of all
(tyrant) hideous destructor
(tyrant) every man shall fall
Your very lives are held within my fingers
I snap them and you cower down in fear
You spineless things [...]

On Monday morning around 5:30 a.m. in Springfield, Virginia, Eric Williamson was making coffee (in the privacy of his own home) in the buff. Unbeknownst to Williamson, a woman and her 7 year old son could see him in all his glory as they took a shortcut through his front yard.
The woman, horrified that her [...]

In commemorating President Barack Obama’s (undeserved) Nobel Peace Prize, I thought the classic Megadeth song “Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?” would be appropriate. Considering some of the other individuals who have won the prize (Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and Al Gore) Obama’s undeserved recognition shouldn’t be all that surprising.

What do you mean, “I [...]

Peter Suderman writing for The Wall Street Journal has written an excellent article about the (apparent) unlearned lessons of government run healthcare. But unlike many others who use Canada and the UK as examples, Suderman insists that we only need to look at states like New York, Massachusetts, Washington, and Tennessee for their respective failed [...]

Gosh, it doesn’t seem like all that long ago the American public was promised hope, change, and a more open, transparent, ethical federal government if we only elected Obama the next President of the United States. Before that, in 2006 Pelosi and Co. made many of the same promises. Now the Democrats have the House, [...]