Andrew Cohen has taken an in-depth look at the criminal justice system.  In an article posted last week on the Brennan Center for Justice website, Cohen discusses how many conservative Christian leaders are questioning the harsh penalties and mass incarceration policies they once advocated. Cohen also examines the delays from conviction to execution in capital cases and highlights the recent exoneration of Glenn Ford.

Mr. Ford’s story was reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

A man who spent nearly 26 years on death row in Louisiana walked free of prison Tuesday, hours after a judge approved the state’s motion to vacate the man’s murder conviction in the 1983 killing of a jeweler.

Glenn Ford, 64, had been on death row since August 1988 in connection with the death of 56-year-old Isadore Rozeman, a Shreveport jeweler and watchmaker for whom Ford had done occasional yard work. Ford had always denied killing Rozeman.

Six Minnesota attorneys worked on the case for more than 20 years, said St. Paul Attorney Deborah Ellis.

Ellis said attorneys in non-death penalty states were recruited to assist Ford beginning in the 1980s. She said she began working on it “furiously” in 1990 filing numerous appeal motions, meeting with Ford several times, and putting in thousands of volunteers hours. She said without her work and others from Minnesota, Ford likely would have been put to death.