ACLU of Santa Cruz County, CA

A Strategy for Abolishing the Death Penalty.

Natasha Minsker, director of the ACLU of Northern California’s Death Penalty Policy program, will talk about challenging capital punishment from a policy perspective.

In the last few years, more and more people in California and across the country have grown skeptical of and uncomfortable with the death penalty. Yet, most politicians believe that being elected still means being “tough on crime,” which means being pro-death penalty.

How do we build opposition to the death penalty and how do we translate that opposition into policy change, in California and nationally? What unique challenges and opportunities are there for changing public policy on the death penalty in California? How has the landscape changed following this year’s election? Where do we see the anti-death penalty movement going in the next few years in California?

Natasha Minsker served as a Deputy Public Defender in Alameda County. She was also a staff attorney with the Judicial Council of California Task Force on Criminal Jury Instructions.  She is a graduate of Stanford Law School.  Minsker is pursuing the goal of reforming capital sentencing procedures and working toward the eventual abolition of the death penalty in California.