Julie Stewart

This Mother's Day was another bittersweet one for Janet Earle. At 78, she has outlived two of her three sons. A dozen years ago, she lost her third son, Scott, through the cracks of Florida's criminal justice system. That Scott remains in a Florida prison is as useless for public...

For all of the division that Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law has sowed in recent weeks, one positive to emerge from the ordeal is a public discussion about the right to self-defense and its limits. Clearly, some acts seem to fall very close to the line between lawful self-defense and...

If you were not already convinced that mandatory minimum sentencing laws are a colossal fraud, recent developments in New York City should convert you.

Three years ago, football star Plaxico Burress was indicted after accidentally shooting himself in the leg in a city nightclub. Though Burress was not a...

Pat Robertson, the well-known Christian broadcaster, attracted lots of attention recently after saying he supports decriminalizing marijuana and treating it like alcohol. His position is surprising and quite bold -- but actually not much bolder than the position taken by other conservative icons in recent years.

Two years...

It's almost too much to bear. After decades of defending some of the most racially discriminatory mandatory minimum sentencing laws ever written, some lawmakers on Capitol Hill and their allies are now saying concern about racial disparity is motivating them to "fix" the federal sentencing guidelines. A new comprehensive report...

"No life is disposable." What an awesome and important message. Especially when it comes from one of the political right's rising stars as he described his plan for mandatory drug treatment in lieu of prison for first-time offenders.

Last week in his State of the State address, New Jersey...

This week, President Barack Obama won't just be pardoning turkeys. He decided to throw some human beings in the mix, too. He pardoned five people, restoring their civil rights, and even issued his first presidential commutation to Eugenia Jennings, reducing her sentence so that she can return home to Missouri...

Twenty years ago, I started Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) because I had come to the conclusion that the one-size-fits-all mandatory minimum sentences dictated by Congress were overly harsh and unevenly applied. Minor drug offenders were getting sentences of 10 years or more in federal prison. Blacks were more likely...

On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?"
Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?"
And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?"
But Conscience asks the question "Is it right?"
And there comes a time when one must take...

Conventional wisdom says that Republicans did so well in the November elections because the public is concerned about our growing national debt. This belief is propelling Republicans and moderate Democrats, most notably in the Senate, to block new spending proposals in the current lame duck session. I salute those seeking...

Yesterday, President Obama changed history once again by signing the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 into law, reforming the notorious "100-to-1" ratio between crack and powder cocaine into a fairer 18-to-1 ratio and repealing a mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of crack.

And lest people think I'm exaggerating, this...