David Protess, 11/28/11

President, Chicago Innocence Project

While abolitionists cheered the news that Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber had declared a moratorium on executions last week, the public reacted with surprise. Oregon has the death penalty?

Hermene Hartman, 11/28/11

President, Hartman Publishing Group, Inc.; President, N'DIGO Foundation

Our students are struggling. They want to succeed in life. They want to go to school. They want jobs. They want to do what is right. But they realize the odds are against them.

Conrad Black, 11/24/11

Historian; Publisher; Author

The unfairness, hypocrisy, and barbarism of the American criminal justice system is increasingly the subject of serious comment. Indeed, almost everything about the American system is wrong.

Amanda Feilding, 11/24/11

Director, The Beckley Foundation

There is much debate as to what the best model of future drug control might look like, but the important thing is not the specific policy to be implemented, but the principles upon which they will be founded and the freedom for countries to experiment with new approaches.

Joel Cohen and Bennett L. Gershman, 11/23/11

Can any trial jury selected to decide this case conceivably find Jerry Sandusky not guilty given what the public already has learned from the clearly incendiary grand jury report?

Diann Rust-Tierney, 11/23/11

Executive Director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

In the best tradition of leadership, Governor Kitzhaber has articulated a vision of a criminal justice system that is fair, reliable and accountable.

Anthony Papa, 11/23/11

Manager, Media Relations, Drug Policy Alliance

This Thanksgiving through an extraordinary program, men on Rikers Island are giving back to the city by cooking turkeys and fixings for over 800 New Yorkers in need.

Robert Koehler, 11/23/11

Syndicated writer

When sex is hidden in the shadows -- when it's something you can't talk about (but you can brag about) -- it easily becomes one more tool of domination, wrapped in an unspeakable shame that preserves its secrecy.

Gretchen Burns Bergman, 11/23/11

Executive Director of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing)

I weep for the countless families who have been torn apart by discriminatory and destructive drug policies that lock up fathers and remove children from their mothers in the name of the war on drugs.

Matthis Chiroux, 11/23/11

Political writer, anti-war activist and Afghanistan War veteran

And as long as the U.S. remains "at war" either literally or rhetorically, either directly or by proxy, we will continue to present our infrastructure as legitimate targets to our adversaries. If we want to be safe, we have to end the wars!

John Stoehr, 11/22/11

Editor, New Haven Advocate; Lecturer, Yale University

These are not conflicts between rivals of equal proportion, as "clash" connotes. These are incidents of police violence and media should start calling it for what it is. With so much amateur video, the media has little choice but to set aside convention and report what's happening.

Brian McKenna, 11/22/11

Journalist, historian, prize-winning filmmaker

The bullet that blew apart the magnificent head of John Kennedy passed within
inches of his wife,
Jacqueline. She remembered the horror in slow motion, a quizzical look on his face as a fragment of his skull flew backward.

Robert Reich, 11/22/11

Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley; Author, 'Aftershock'

The First Amendment is being stood on its head. Money speaks, and an unlimited amount of it can now be spent bribing and cajoling politicians. Yet peaceful assembly is viewed as a public nuisance and removed by force.

Christopher Brauchli, 11/22/11

Lawyer

Although there are many similarities between the church and Penn State there is one significant difference. The era of sexual abuse of children at Penn State has almost certainly come to an end. Can that be said for the Church?

Kevin Connor, 11/22/11

Co-founder, LittleSis.org; Co-founder, Public Accountability Initiative

New research shows that that kind of coziness extends a few steps down the food chain from the billionaire mayor and his ilk, to the Brookfield Properties security team and the NYPD, which have acted hand in hand to guard Zuccotti Park since the eviction on Tuesday.

Andrea Bonior, 11/22/11

Psychologist, Professor, Author

One of the risk factors for becoming a sexual abuser of children is having been victimized yourself. One of my concerns as a clinical psychologist is that our sticking our heads in the sand can perpetuate this cycle.

Danielle C. Jefferis, 11/22/11

Third-year law student, Georgetown University

If that is enough authority for the FBI to collect massive amounts of data on religious, ethnic and national-origin characteristics of countless individuals throughout the country, why was that not enough to join and support the NYPD in its investigation of Pimentel?