Blog of Rights

Tanya
Greene
Tanya Greene’s work focuses on criminal justice issues, including the death penalty, indigent defense, solitary confinement and juvenile justice. Greene worked as a capital defense practitioner for almost 15 years prior to joining the ACLU.
 
She began at the Southern Center for Human Rights, representing indigent capital clients in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. Greene then worked as a Deputy Capital Defender at the New York Capital Defender Office where she represented capitally charged clients in the New York City area.  The New York Capital Defender Office was instrumental in having the New York death penalty statute declared unconstitutional in 2004.  Subsequently, Greene served as the Training and Assistance Counsel for the National Consortium for Capital Defense Training where she developed innovative training and consulted with capital defense practitioners on cases nationwide.
 
Greene received her J.D. from Harvard Law School after graduating from Wesleyan University with a double major in Sociology and Afro-American Studies.  Greene is an active member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the National Conference of Black Lawyers; she serves on the Board of Directors of the Gulf Region Advocacy Center, a death penalty non-profit in Houston, Texas.

If a Lawyer Stole $5 From a Client...

By Tanya Greene, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 5:25pm

"If a lawyer stole $5 from a client, he would probably be prosecuted and might even go to jail — but that prosecutor stole 18 years of my life and what happened to him? Nothing."

This from John Thompson last night in New York, as he kicked off a multi-state speaking series on prosecutorial misconduct in the criminal justice system. You may remember Thompson as one of the men Harry Connick, Sr.’s Orleans Parish (Louisiana) District Attorney’s Office sent to death row by hiding evidence that would have proven his innocence. You may also remember that Thompson was released after 18 years in prison, 14 of them on death row awaiting his execution, that he sued for the damage done to his life, and that a jury awarded him $14 million. And you may recall that last year the United States Supreme Court denied him that reward, refusing to find the prosecutor’s office that broke the rules to send Thompson to death row liable for monetary damages for his stolen life.

Tightening Belts Means Loosening Restraints: Illinois to Close Supermax Prison

By Tanya Greene, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 11:00am

One of the more positive things to result from deteriorating state budgets across the nation is that some state lawmakers are looking to smart criminal justice reform as a way to trim budgets. Whether motivated by cost savings or human rights, these changes are an important step toward a more humane justice system. One such change began yesterday in Illinois, where Gov. Patrick Quinn announced a budget plan that includes closing the state's Tamms Correctional Center — reportedly saving $21.6 million in the upcoming fiscal year and $26.6 million annually thereafter.

Choosing Death Over Life: (Still) Starving to Stop Solitary

By Rebecca McCray, ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project & Tanya Greene, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 10:33am

UPDATE: Although it appears that the hunger strike is over, the problems with solitary confinement remain. Not only are these conditions inhumane and harmful, but they also jeopardize public safety.

Wither the Death Penalty! First in 2011 — Illinois. Is Maryland Next?

By Tanya Greene, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 6:19pm

One more down, fewer to go! By taking the historic step of signing into law last week a repeal of the death penalty in Illinois, Gov. Patrick Quinn lent further momentum to efforts in other states across the country to abolish state-sanctioned killings.

Long plagued with flaws including the sentencing to death of 20 people who were later freed after being found to be innocent, racial bias, rampant legal errors and law enforcement, attorney and court misconduct and incompetence that besieged the capital prosecution system, Illinois' death penalty system had to go.

CT Ends Death Penalty! One Big Step for a Small State; One Giant Step for our Society

By Tanya Greene, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 2:36pm

Connecticut has finally wiped its hands of that messy and sorrowful task of killing its own citizens. Today, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed legislation to repeal the death penalty that was passed by the state legislature earlier this month.

After a series of starts, stops, hurry up and wait, promises, threats, votes and vetoes over recent years, Connecticut stepped surely onto the abolition train and prospectively repealed the death penalty once and for all. The 11 men on death row before the bill's passage will remain there and continue to face execution, but thankfully no one else will. We applaud the brave legislators who heard the pleas of scores of Connecticut murder victim families who called for repeal and nonviolent healing, of law enforcement officials who recognize the death penalty is the least effective tool against violence, of conservatives and progressives alike who have concern about its discriminatory use and huge expense, and of religious leaders of all faiths who insist state-sponsored murder cannot be justified.

25 Years After McCleskey, Looking Forward to Legislative Fixes of Supreme Court Error

By Tanya Greene, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 9:54am

April 22 marks the 25th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in McCleskey v. Kemp, in which the Court ruled that a defendant cannot rely upon statistical evidence of systemic racial bias to prove his death sentence unconstitutional, no matter how strong that evidence may be. McCleskey has been roundly condemned as a low point in the quest for equality that begs to be revisited. To mark the occasion, every day this week the ACLU Blog of Rights will feature a new post about McCleskey and its legacy. You can read all the posts here, and visit mccleskeyvkemp.com to learn more.

Throwaway Kids?

By Tanya Greene, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 1:41pm

Next week the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments in two historic cases. Incredibly, the cases — from Alabama, Miller v. Alabama, and Arkansas, Jackson v. Hobbs — concern the practice, unique to the United States, of imprisoning teenagers for the rest of their natural lives for crimes committed while they were still developing into adulthood. The U.S. stands utterly alone on this one — no other country in the world locks up its children for crimes committed before they could legally drive, join the military, vote or sometimes even get married.

Virginia is for Lovers...of Solitary Confinement?

By Tanya Greene, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 1:53pm

Over the weekend, the Washington Post ran a front page article describing the realities of solitary confinement for inmates in Virginia. The horrors of 23-hour-a-day lockdown, sensory deprivation and isolation were lauded by Department of Corrections (DOC) officials as a necessary measure for handling the “worst of the worst.” Unfortunately, this supposed “worst of the worst” includes the mentally ill — the Virginia DOC admits that almost 30% of those in solitary in Red Onion State Prison have been diagnosed as mentally ill. Those of us who know prisons can only imagine how many more go undiagnosed, left alone with their demons in tiny, windowless cells for years.

Federal Court Slaps Federal Prosecutor Down

By Tanya Greene, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 4:19pm

More support for death penalty abolitionist states to remain that way came yesterday when a federal court upheld Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee's right to refuse to transfer a state inmate to federal custody where he might be subjected to capital prosecution and potentially the death penalty. Specifically, the court held that if a governor refuses attempts by the federal government to transfer a state inmate into federal custody under the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (IAD), the federal government cannot then utilize another strategy to force the transfer. In other words, you don't get two bites at the apple, Mr. Prosecutor. Big ups to Rhode Island ACLU Executive Director Steven Brown for helping coordinate advocacy that resulted in this win. Rhode Island abolished the death penalty first in 1852, and for good in 1984 — and they mean it.

Bradley Manning's Treatment Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg

By Tanya Greene, Advocacy and Policy Counsel, ACLU at 5:51pm

Recent news reports suggest that Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused of leaking government files to Wikileaks, is being held by our government — alone, often naked, in a small isolation cell for months at a time as he awaits legal proceedings to commence against him. Many Americans are appalled by the thought of this kind of treatment. While it appears these confinement conditions serve no purpose other than to degrade Pfc. Manning and break his spirit, they provide an important opportunity for the nation to reflect on the deeply damaging impact of solitary confinement.

Statistics image