American Civil Liberties Union

Kevin Keith is a 46-year-old man currently on death row in the state of Ohio. Keith is scheduled to be put to death on September 15, in spite of overwhelming evidence that he is an innocent man.

Groups including the Ohio Innocence Project, the National Innocence Network, and a group of leading eyewitness and memory experts are petitioning to urge the Ohio Parole Board and Gov. Ted Strickland to grant clemency to Kevin Keith.

Today, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 vote that children may not be given a life sentence if they haven't killed anyone. The court's ruling says the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, requires that juveniles serving life sentences must at least be considered for release. In the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, "The state has denied [Terrance Graham] any chance to later demonstrate that he is fit to rejoin society based solely on a nonhomicide crime that he committed while he was a child in the eyes of the law…This the Eighth Amendment does not permit." In its opinion, the court also discussed the relevance of international law and practice, noting the "global consensus" against life sentences for juveniles who haven't committed murder, and that "the United States stands alone in a world that has turned its face against life without parole for juvenile nonhomicide offenders."

Salon’s Glenn Greenwald pointed out an interesting coincidence today. He writes:

The ACLU has long had as its motto for  its National Security Project: "Keep America Safe and Free." Here is their new logo:



Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol just created a new organization…Its name is Keep America Safe and this is its logo:



It's as though they took the ACLU's logo and wrote the "Free" out of it, depicting America as nothing more than a single-minded, fear-based Security State.

The ACLU is committed to keeping American safe and free. We reject the false notion that there is a trade-off between liberty and security; we must stand by the values that make America “America” at all times.