RJ Blog

One year and ten months after fatally shooting six people and attempting the assassination of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Jared Loughner has been sentenced to life in prison without parole. Imposing seven consecutive life terms plus 140 years in prison, Judge Larry Burns explained that Loughner “will never have the opportunity to pick up a gun and do this again.” Loughner was spared the death penalty by entering a plea bargain. Suffering traumatic injuries when a bullet pierced her head, Giffords has made a remarkable recovery since the January 2011 shooting in Tucson, AZ. Although she remains paralyzed in one arm [...]

by Rabbi Debra Hachen She only says a few words, but our friends’ granddaughter Stella has one expression down cold: “Uh-oh.” She says it when she drops a toy on the floor or sees a dog trying to sneak food off the table. She feels the stirrings of guilt – her sense of right and wrong forming in her agile brain. The day we will expect her to be fully responsible for all her actions and their consequences seems far off. After all, she is only a child. On June 25, the Supreme Court ruled that the line between child [...]

Anthony Graves has seen lucid men go insane. Anthony Graves has seen, lived, and survived hell. But a part of him remains forever stuck there. Found innocent and released from death row in Texas two years ago, Graves still hasn’t slept more than 2 ½ hours a night. After having spent 18 ½ years in prison and 10 of those years in solitary confinement in an 8’x12’ cage, after having slept on a steel bed with a thin plastic mattress and pillow, and after having humiliatingly relieved himself with his steel toilet in front of male and female guards, Graves [...]

by Rabbi Jeff Goldwasser Not long after I arrived in Florida, a congregant told me about the Treatment Center where he works as an administrator, a place for people whom the criminal justice system has deemed to be mentally ill or mentally incompetent. He asked me if I would be willing to visit the Center to talk with its few Jewish residents. I told my new congregant that I would be honored to help his residents. There was a long process before I could be approved to volunteer at the Center. I made my first trip to visit its residents [...]

A year ago I was sitting in my apartment at college, hogging the TV from my roommates who just wanted to watch the newest episode of The Bachelor, as I anxiously awaited President Obama’s press conference. Twitter had indicated 15 minutes earlier that Osama bin Laden had been killed at the hands of Navy SEALS, but it didn’t seem real until I heard the President say: “The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.” But [...]