Blog of Rights
Rebecca
McCray

Rebecca McCray works as a paralegal with the Criminal Law Reform Project of the ACLU, which seeks an end to excessively harsh crime policies that result in mass incarceration. The Project works to reduce the number of people entering jails and prisons by reforming our nation's punitive drug policies and challenging police and prosecutorial misconduct and other governmental abuses of power. Rebecca has worked as an educator and researcher at the Iowa Correctional Institute for Women, the Iowa Juvenile Home, and Rikers Island, facilitating classes in writing, visual art, and debate. In addition, Rebecca leads free writing workshops throughout New York City with the New York Writers Coalition and regularly contributes to the organization’s blog, The Narrator. An Iowa native, she lives and writes in Brooklyn. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa. You can follow her on Twitter here: @rebeccakmccray

01/28/2011
Debtors Prisons

Sending Your Kid to the Wrong School Could Land You Five Years Behind Bars

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU & Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project at 5:34pm

Last Tuesday, something happened in Ohio that should shock the conscience of every American. After a seven-day jury trial, Kelley Williams-Bolar was found guilty of two third-degree felonies — with a sentence of five years in prison each. Williams-Bolar must have done something pretty heinous, right?

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01/21/2011

Harry's Law's Primetime Shout-Out for Criminal Law Reform

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU & Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project at 5:06pm

While flipping channels on Monday night, we were pleased to stumble across NBC's new show, Harry's Law. The pilot episode features a bored Harriet "Harry" Korn (played by Kathy Bates), who opens her own criminal defense firm after she's fired from her mind-numbing job in patent law. While the opening few minutes are a bit absurd (Harry's first client is a third-time drug offender who literally lands on her after jumping off a building), the show's pilot brings to light the serious problem of overincarceration in our country.

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01/13/2011

Sing it, Newt! Gingrich and Allies Promote Criminal Justice Reform

By Inimai Chettiar, ACLU & Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project at 4:57pm

It might seem hard to find something the left and right agree on these days, but we're thrilled to see both sides of the political spectrum reaching an important consensus when it comes to our country's correctional system. As a non-partisan organization, the ACLU has always realized that reforming the criminal justice system is not a political issue, but one of fairness, justice and now, economic necessity. We're glad to see others getting that, too.

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09/23/2010

Teresa Lewis Execution Underscores Shocking Unfairness Of Death Penalty

By Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project at 5:20pm

Barring a last-minute miracle, 41-year-old Teresa Lewis will be unjustly put to death by lethal injection at 9 p.m. tonight at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Va. Her final appeal was blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week.

Earlier this month, we wrote about Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's impending opportunity to commute Lewis' sentence from death to life. Lewis was one part of a three-person operation that concluded with the murders of her husband and stepson in October of 2002. Of the three, she was the only one to receive a death sentence, despite the fact that she was heavily manipulated by a codefendant who preyed upon the fact that she has an IQ in the low 70's — a person with an IQ score between 70 and 75 can be considered mentally retarded. Further details of her case are available here. On Friday, Gov. McDonnell issued a statement in response to her petition for clemency, declining to grant it and concluding he could find "no compelling reason to set aside the sentence that was imposed by the circuit court and affirmed by all reviewing courts." In light of all the new evidence provided to the governor in the petition, his decision is exceedingly hard to swallow.

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09/14/2010

A Misidentified "Mastermind"

By Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project at 12:49pm

On September 23, Teresa Lewis, a mentally disabled individual, is slated to become the first woman executed in the state of Virginia since the electrocution of Virginia Christian in 1912. Accused of hiring Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller to kill her husband and stepson, Lewis pleaded guilty in 2002 and received a death sentence, while the two men responsible for carrying out the murders were sentenced to life in prison. Judge Charles Strauss explained the disparity in their sentences by identifying her as the "head of the serpent" in the operation. It's not just the differing sentences that perturbs — Teresa Lewis has been classified as borderline mentally disabled by two separate mental health experts. Yet Judge Strauss didn't take into account the vast difference in intellectual abilities between herself and the men who killed her husband and stepson. Lewis' sentence is yet another example of the unjust distribution and application of the death penalty. We urge you to send this letter to Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell asking him to commute Lewis' death sentence to life in prison.

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05/04/2007

ICE Raids and Harrassment by Vigilante Groups

By Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project at 3:20pm
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, Dr. Jorge Bustamante, is visiting the United States at the invitation of the U.S. government to review the conditions of migrants and immigrants. To learn more about his visit, go to www.aclu.org/humanrightsofmigrants.

The Special R
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