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Welcome to Wednesday. NCR political columnist Michael Sean Winters says to remember that Donald Trump's impeachment trial is political, not criminal, and the case is whether or not he undermined American democracy. A Georgetown University panel discusses how the criminal legal system disproportionately harms Black women.
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** Exposing the Republicans' excuses for not convicting Trump ([link removed])
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The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump has begun and NCR political columnist Michael Sean Winters isn't sure what is more remarkable: the frightening facts that undergird the case or the rhetorical gymnastics displayed by the former president's defenders.
Some reports say that Republicans, just like Democrats, also want to be rid of Trump, but worry that convicting the former president and barring him from running for office again will only galvanize him and his supporters. Others say that the trial cannot be fair because it is being presided over by Senate President Pro Tempore, Sen. Patrick Leahy, not the Chief Justice of the United States, and Leahy has already said he believes the president is guilty.
"Seriously, the core issue at stake in this trial is not whether the jury will be fair or whether Trump violated some item in the criminal code," Winters writes. "We should not confuse an impeachment proceeding with a criminal proceeding. For starters, there is no requirement that the standard of proof in a criminal trial — beyond a reasonable doubt — be met. Impeachment is a political trial, and this case is about whether or not a public official, and not just any public official, but the president of the United States, should be punished in some way for the political crime of trying to undermine American democracy."
You can read more of the column here ([link removed]) .
More background:
* In a commentary for NCR ([link removed]) , Alison Benders of Santa Clara University says the insurrection at the Capitol was an attempt to lynch our democracy.
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** Panel: Black women bear the brunt of mass incarceration ([link removed])
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When Syrita Steib was incarcerated for 10 years, she got used to being called "inmate" or "convict," or being referred to using a number.
Now, as co-founder and executive director of Operation Restoration, an organization that provides education, health care and other services for formerly incarcerated women, Steib is trying to fight the dehumanization Black women face on a daily basis in interactions with the criminal legal system.
In an online panel hosted by the Georgetown University Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, Steib and other speakers discussed how the criminal legal system disproportionately harms Black women, and proposed looking for alternatives to incarceration that balance accountability with forgiveness and dignity.
The female prison population has exploded in the past few decades. Between 1980 and 2019, the number of women in prison shot up by more than 700%, from roughly 26,400 to almost 222,500, according to a report by The Sentencing Project. Black women are incarcerated at almost twice the rate of white women, the report said.
You can read more the story here ([link removed]) .
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** More headlines
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* In the latest Francis Effect podcast ([link removed]) , NCR executive editor Heidi Schlumpf, Franciscan Fr. Daniel Horan and David Dault talk about recent significant Vatican appointments, what they are watching in entertainment and the season of Lent. All of the episodes can be found here ([link removed]) .
* In the latest Notes from the Field post at Global Sisters Report ([link removed]) , Maddie Thompson writes using the poetry of National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman to inspire the students at her school.
* ICYMI: In his latest column ([link removed]) , Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese wonders how the Biden administration will pick its way through a minefield regarding the Little Sisters of the Poor and the contraceptive mandate.
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** Final thoughts
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Every Friday, EarthBeat Editor Barbara Fraser writes a weekly newsletter pointing to all the great coverage at EarthBeat. Last week's newsletter ([link removed]) took a deeper dive into her story on The River Above Asia and Oceania Ecclesial Network ([link removed]) , a new church network linking people of faith throughout the vast Pacific biome. Sign up now to get EarthBeat Weekly ([link removed]) in your inbox on Friday. And you can catch up with all of the past newsletters here ([link removed]) .
Until Thursday,
Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Managing Editor
[email protected] (mailto:
[email protected])
Twitter: @ncrSLY ([link removed])
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