{"id":25624,"date":"2015-10-14T09:48:50","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T13:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=25624"},"modified":"2015-10-21T11:47:24","modified_gmt":"2015-10-21T15:47:24","slug":"former-virginia-attorney-general-now-against-the-death-penalty-to-speak-on-the-issue-of-mass-incarceration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/former-virginia-attorney-general-now-against-the-death-penalty-to-speak-on-the-issue-of-mass-incarceration\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Virginia attorney general, now against the death penalty, to speak on the issue of mass incarceration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Earley, former state senator and attorney general of Virginia, has changed his mind about incarceration and the ultimate punishment within the United States\u2019 current criminal justice system. While he was attorney general, the state executed 36 people.<\/p>\n

Now Earley is speaking out about mass incarceration and the death penalty. He currently serves as co-chair of Governor Terry McAuliffe\u2019s Commission on Parole Review<\/a> and is immediate past president of the nationwide ministry, Prison Fellowship USA<\/a>, founded by Charles Colson. He practices law with Earley Legal Group in Leesburg.<\/p>\n

Earley will speak Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. in Martin Chapel at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) on \u201cWhy America Incarcerates So Many People and What We Can Do About It.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broad coalition endorsing visit<\/strong><\/h3>\n

His visit is sponsored by a diverse coalition of more than 20 area organizations, including EMU\u2019s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding<\/a> (CJP).<\/p>\n

Earley\u2019s visit comes months after the Harrisonburg Police Department, aided by CJP-trained practitioners from EMU, James Madison University and the local Fairfield Center, announced an ambitious restorative justice program<\/a> aimed at reducing local incarceration rates and reforming the local criminal justice system.<\/p>\n

“In light of all of the recent conversation going on in our community over the issue of jail expansion, some of us saw Mark Earley as an ideal person to speak to the urgent need for criminal justice reform, given his conservative credentials and his years of experience in the field,\u201d said Harvey Yoder<\/a>, Mennonite pastor, counselor and criminal justice advocate. \u201cThe more than 20 local agencies and organizations officially endorsing the event, ranging from the Harrisonburg Police Department to James Madison University’s Department of Justice Studies, reflects some of the broad interest in this topic.”<\/p>\n

Yoder is among the leaders of a local chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an interfaith peace organization, as well as of a local working group focused on local justice issues known as Building Better Communities.<\/p>\n

Additional organizations endorsing Earley\u2019s visit include the Valley Family Forum, Virginia Organizing, Our Community Place, On the Road Collaborative, NAACP Harrisonburg chapter, Northeast Neighborhood Association, NewBridges Immigrant Resource Center, the Martin Luther King Way Coalition, Mahatma Ghandhi Center for Global Nonviolence, The Institute for Reform and Solutions, Immanuel Mennonite Church, The Harriet Tubman Cultural Center, Harrisonburg\/Rockingham\/Page Reentry Council, Harrisonburg\/Rockingham Interfaith Association, Harrisonburg City School Board, Harrisonburg Democratic Committee, Gemeinschaft Home, The Fairfield Center and Community Mennonite Church.<\/p>\n

Relationships with incarcerated were influential
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Earley, an attorney, practiced law for 15 years in Norfolk, Virginia, as a criminal defense attorney and then served in the Virginia State Senate from 1988-1998. During that time, Virginia executed 36 people. In 1998, he was elected Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Virginia, resigning in 2001 to run an unsuccessful campaign for governor. For all of these years, Earley says he supported the death penalty, but had increasing doubts about its morality.<\/p>\n

He also delved deeply into the lives and culture of the incarcerated as part of a task force on gangs and youth violence<\/a>, and visited every juvenile detention center in Virginia \u2013 a visceral experience<\/a> that he recounts in an interview in The American Conservative.<\/p>\n

After losing the governor\u2019s election to Mark Warner, Earley served the next eight years until 2011 as president of Prison Fellowship USA. According to its website, Prison Fellowship helps to make prisons \u201cmore rehabilitative places, advocates for a restorative criminal justice system; and supports church and service providers to support former prisoners, their families and communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earley is now a vocal opponent of the death penalty, often joining bipartisan efforts such as The Constitution Project to advocate for reform. An essay published in the April 2015 issue of the University of Richmond Law Review summarizes his change of view: titled \u201cA Pink Cadillac, An IQ of 63, and a Fourteen-Year-Old From South Carolina: Why I Can No Longer Support the Death Penalty<\/a>,\u201d the essay reflects on the recent exoneration of 14-year-old George Stinney, the youngest person executed in the United States. In 1944, the teenager was convicted of killing two white girls after a two-hour trial and a 10-minute jury deliberation riddled with impropriety.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you believe that the government always \u2018gets it right,\u2019 never makes serious mistakes, and is never tainted with corruption, then you can be comfortable supporting the death penalty. I no longer have such faith in the government and therefore, cannot and do not support the death penalty,\u201d Earley writes at the beginning of his essay.<\/p>\n

Editor’s note: Valley Family Forum is no longer providing an endorsement of this event. [Oct. 16, 2015]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Earley, former state senator and attorney general of Virginia, has changed his mind about incarceration and the ultimate punishment within the United States\u2019 current criminal justice system. While he ... read more about Former Virginia attorney general, now against the death penalty, to speak on the issue of mass incarceration<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14184,12503],"tags":[10666,17060],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-25624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-guests","category-cjp","tag-harvey-yoder","tag-mark-earley"],"yoast_head":"\nFormer Virginia attorney general, now against the death penalty, to speak on the issue of mass incarceration - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/former-virginia-attorney-general-now-against-the-death-penalty-to-speak-on-the-issue-of-mass-incarceration\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former Virginia attorney general, now against the death penalty, to speak on the issue of mass incarceration - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mark Earley, former state senator and attorney general of Virginia, has changed his mind about incarceration and the ultimate punishment within the United States\u2019 current criminal justice system. 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